The first thing you’ll do to find your Irish ancestry is to confirm your parents’ and grandparents’ information.
You’ll need:
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- When and where your parents were born. Confirm it with a birth certificate or similar record. (Now and then, a parent gets this wrong. Or wants to seem younger than they are.)
- Their parents’ names and other information, on your parents’ birth records. (Notice any odd misspellings, and their addresses, if noted.)
- When and where your grandparents were born, and their birth certificate info – especially their parents’ names, and addresses, if possible.
Note: Online, United States vital records may be found on a number of websites, such as FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, or state government sites.
Some may charge a fee. Others may offer you limited information as part of a free trial membership.
In some cases, free sites such as the U.S. National Archives’ Vital Records may be helpful.
With this information, you have a fairly solid foundation for your future research. (I said “fairly” because some records – even official ones – can contain errors.)
Next, I’ll explain two ways to proceed.