If you have ancestry in county Limerick, you are in luck as there is a vast range of genealogical material available online to help you in your research. Here are the top 10 websites for researching your Limerick roots.

1. Irish Census – Search and view all surviving household returns for the 1901 and 1911 Census for Limerick city and county and the limited census fragments dating from 1821, 1841 and 1851.  

2. RootsIreland/Limerick - A database of over 1.3 million genealogical records specific to Limerick including fully transcribed church and civil records of births, deaths and marriages, census returns, Griffith’s Valuation and various 19th-century census substitutes including the Tithe Applotment Books, parish census records and the census search forms. This page has useful information for research including a full list of surviving church records, links to other online sources and subscribers can contact the local genealogist for help with their research.

3. IrishGenealogy – A searchable database of all Irish civil records with digitized images available in most cases. Civil birth records from 1864 to 1916, marriage records from 1845 to 1941 and death records from 1864 to 1966.  

4. Parish Registers from the National Library – Browse through the original Roman Catholic parish registers of Limerick from the start of records up to approximately 1880 and later in some cases.

5. Griffith Valuations - Search for your ancestors in Limerick in Griffith’s Valuation, a property valuation record listing tenants and their lessors in Limerick city and county during the years 1850-’52.  This site allows you to view the original records and accompanying maps.

6. National Archives – A significant collection of genealogical sources from the nineteenth century and earlier including the Tithe Applotment Books dating from 1823-1837, Will Registers (1858-1900), Diocesan and Prerogative Marriage Licence Bonds Indexes (1623 – 1866) and Catholic Qualification Rolls (1700-1845).

7. OSI.ie – Historic maps of Limerick city and county can be used to pinpoint the location of placenames associated with your family history.

8. Limerick.ie - Limerick City Library’s interesting collection of digitized and transcribed historical sources useful for genealogical research include death notices from the Limerick Chronicle from 1781 to 1945, registers of electors for Limerick city, trade directories from 1769 to 1920 and compiled local family histories.

9. Limerick Archive - Limerick Archive has a unique collection of archival material, much of which is digitized for online viewing and again is of value to your genealogical research. Records relate to local government and institutions but also schools, businesses and estate papers. Here you will also find a fully searchable database of the burial registers of Limerick City’s main burial ground, Mount Saint Lawrence Municipal Cemetery, dating from 1855 onwards.  

10.  Limerick's Life – For a historical insight into Limerick and to cultivate a love for the home place of your ancestors have a browse through historian Sharon Slater’s online project.

Many of the above websites have genealogical records for counties throughout Ireland so if your research takes you outside of Limerick, the above list is still of value to you.

To finish we would like to offer some advice when researching your ancestors in Limerick:

  • For visitors to Limerick, it is a good idea to carry out some research before you travel so that you can plan you trip around your findings.
  • If you ancestor emigrated from Limerick, research in the adopted country can provide the necessary clues to your search in Limerick; for example, death and marriage records in countries such as the U.S. and Australia can provide the names of the parents of your ancestor. Gravestones inscriptions, obituaries and census returns can give specific places of origin in Limerick.
  • Allow for possible variations and errors in the recording of the names involved, both surname and Christian name.
  • Allow for inaccuracies in ages and dates of birth recorded on subsequent records.

Limerick Genealogy provides a professional genealogical research service for those with ancestry in Limerick city and county. The service holds a collection of approximately three million records, including a database of over one million, which was compiled over the last thirty years, most of which is now searchable online on RootsIreland.ie.

Over the years Limerick Genealogy has helped many thousands of people in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and elsewhere around the world to trace their Limerick roots. Limerick Genealogy provides a unique and comprehensive research service with a Limerick-based knowledge and expertise, offering family history reports, advice and one-to-one consultations.

---

Limerick Genealogy is run by Catriona Crowe who began working in genealogy in 2001 with the former research service Limerick Ancestry. 

* Originally published in 2018, updated in May 2024.