Irish Family History: Ashes to Archives What was lost? What survived?

On Friday 30 June 1922 a massive explosion rocked Dublin city. A huge cloud of smoke and debris arose from the Four Courts building on the banks of the Liffey. The complex of late eighteenth century court house buildings also housed the nation's Public Record Office had been under bombardment for two days. Stored in the record treasury room were the defenders munitions. The combination was fatal to the historic record of Ireland which was reduced to ash.

But what survived? Most of what survived the fire were detailed catalogues, indexes and calendars (indexes including synopsis of the originals). We have a range of these sources available on findmypast. These form the core resources for Irish family historians looking to bring their family story back to the early 1800s. Other records which have proven invaluable to family historians came from other libraries and depositories. More information can be found in our A-Z of Irish records.

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Retrieved from the Ashes

At findmypast we are working hard to bring as many of the records that survived the destruction of the Four Courts to our members. This is a small taster of the records that we currently have and what will be available soon.