July 2015 - 300 yrs of Catholic parish registers free online

The entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) is being made available; giving people of Irish Catholic ancestry the opportunity to trace their origins back almost 300 years online from July 8th. Gearoid O Ceallaigh, Chairman of Clans of Ireland commented that "this is of huge importance to the vast majority of Irish people, who are not lucky enough to have established ancestral records. Indeed, people may discover that they are able to trace their ancestry to a historic or important branch of their family in the Seventeenth  or Eighteenth Century."
There are more than 370,000 digital images of the microfilm reels involved, on which the parish registers are recorded and which will be accessible free of charge.These parish register records are considered to be the most important single source of data on Irish family history prior to the 1901 census. Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,086 parishes throughout the island of Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records.
Clans of Ireland provides a Register of Clans with contact details for any enquiries.