Find your Irish family in the records, not only in the family stories.

I trace Irish ancestors through civil registers, parish books, census returns and land records, and I send you a clear written report with a copy and transcription of every record I find.

Tell me what you know

One entry like this names a child's parents, the mother's maiden name, a townland and an occupation. That is often enough to find the generation before.

How it works

1. You tell me what you know.Names, rough dates, places, family stories and any documents you have. Even a county and a surname can be a starting point.
2. I assess what survives and send a plan.Irish records have gaps, so I check what can realistically be found before you commit, and quote a fixed price or a capped number of hours.
3. I research and report.You receive a written report, images and transcriptions of each record, a family tree file, and suggestions for what could be searched next.

What to expect from Irish records

Most families can be traced with confidence back to the 1860s, when civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began, and often into the 1820s or 1830s through parish registers. Earlier than that depends on which records survived in a particular parish.

I keep three kinds of information apart in every report, so you always know how much weight a conclusion can bear:

• what a record states,
• what the family remembers,
• and what is a reasoned guess still waiting for proof.

Who I am

I'm David Mulrooney, a researcher and editor based in Vienna, with a PhD from Harvard and degrees from Trinity College Dublin. I spent this year rebuilding my own family's history record by record, across Limerick, Cork, Clare, Wexford, Armagh and beyond. More about me.