Country hub
Ireland
Ireland is the first AnchorHaven country hub. If your family left Ireland one, four, or eight generations ago, the practical question is the same: which place, precisely, are you trying to stand in?
How Irish places are organised
These units come up constantly in records and in conversation with researchers. Knowing roughly what each one means makes the whole process easier.
- County
- The largest familiar unit, and often the only thing a family remembers. A county can contain hundreds of parishes, so county-level knowledge is a starting point rather than a destination.
- Civil parish and church parish
- Civil parishes were used for administrative and land records. Church parishes were used by Catholic and Church of Ireland congregations. The two sets of boundaries are not the same, which is a common source of confusion.
- Townland
- The smallest traditional land division, and usually the most meaningful place to visit. Many families remember a townland name without knowing the parish or district it sits in.
- Civil registration district
- The administrative area used for registering births, marriages, and deaths. It rarely matches parish boundaries, so a record can look like it points to the wrong place.
- Repositories
- Archives, libraries, heritage centres, and record offices hold different material. Some collections are online, some are only available in person, and some require an appointment.
- Diaspora records
- Records created after emigration, in the United States, Canada, Australia, or Britain, often carry the detail that identifies the Irish place. Research frequently begins abroad rather than in Ireland.
Counties
We publish a county hub only when there is verified material behind it.
County Cork
A destination hub, a records and repositories guide, and a structured provider directory.
County Kerry
County Limerick
County Tipperary
County Waterford
County Clare
County Galway
County Mayo
County Donegal
County Dublin
What do you need help doing?
Identify an ancestral hometown
Work back from a surname, a DNA estimate, or a family story toward a specific parish, townland, or town.
Complete pre-trip research
Have records located, reviewed, and organised before you travel, so your time in Ireland is spent well.
Arrange archive or cemetery visits
Prepare for a repository visit, or arrange help with graveyards, churchyards, and local record offices.
Find local transportation and guiding
Reach rural townlands and parishes with a driver or guide who knows the roads and the local history.
Create a custom heritage itinerary
Turn what you have found into a day-by-day plan that connects places, people, and records.