ANOTHER YEAR OF historical Irish birth, marriage and death records are now available to the public online.

People interested in exploring the documents or tracing genealogy will now be able to view an extra year of records as part of an annual update.

The following records are available online:

• Birth Register records for the years 1864 to 1921
• Marriage Register records for the years 1845 to 1946
• Death Register records for the years 1864 to 1971

The timeframe for the records was extended from 1920, 1945, and 1970 respectively.

There is no charge or subscription required to access the records.

The website currently has records of 6,784,749 births, 1,939,623 marriages and 6,943,532 deaths.

Records of Catholic marriages are only available from 1864 onwards as that was when civil registration commenced for marriages in the Catholic church.

Minister for Culture Catherine Martin said she expects the update “will be met with eager anticipation by those carrying out research in genealogy”.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys added that the civil registration records “are amongst the richest online information sources which can be accessed by citizens and the Irish diaspora worldwide”.

“The past two years have given us all a greater insight and value for information sources such as this,” Humphreys said.

“With the addition of the new twelve months, the birth, marriage and death records of a former Taoiseach and Statesman, Seán Lemass can be viewed online now,” she said.

As well as Seán Lemass, birth records in the newly-available entries include Dr Mona (Mary Monica) Tyndall, a doctor and missionary sister who worked to combat HIV/AIDS, and Bernard Patrick Devlin, an Irish clergyman who was the fifth bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Gibraltar.