For millions of people around the world, Ireland is more than a place on a map. It is the starting point of a family story — one that stretches across oceans, through centuries, and into the present day. Whether your ancestors left during the Famine, sought opportunity in the New World, or simply moved on to build new lives elsewhere, the thread connecting you to Ireland remains. Irish Roots exists to help you find it.
We are delighted to launch irishroots.ie, a new platform built from the ground up to serve the Irish genealogy community. But Irish Roots is not just another ancestry website. We combine traditional genealogical research with modern software engineering, artificial intelligence, and purpose-built tools to help you discover, organise, and share your Irish heritage in ways that were not possible even a few years ago.
Genealogy Research Services
At our core, we offer professional genealogy research services focused on Irish records. Ireland’s historical records can be notoriously difficult to navigate. Civil registration only began in 1864. Catholic parish records vary wildly in quality and coverage. Land records, census fragments, and Poor Law Union documents are scattered across multiple archives and databases. We know where to look, what survives, and how to piece together a picture of your ancestors’ lives from the sources that remain.
Whether you are just getting started and want to trace a single line back to Ireland, or you are an experienced researcher who has hit a brick wall, we can help. Our team has deep experience working with Irish records from every county, and we understand the local context — the townlands, parishes, and baronies — that makes Irish research unique.
Software Engineering and Tool Creation
What sets Irish Roots apart is our commitment to building tools that make genealogy research faster and more accessible. We are software engineers as well as genealogists, and we believe that the right technology can transform how people interact with historical records.
Our townland search tool lets you explore over 60,000 Irish townlands, instantly finding the county, barony, civil parish, and poor law union for any location. Our census links tool connects you directly to the available census records and substitutes for your area of interest. These are practical, focused tools designed to save you hours of manual searching.
We build these tools ourselves, and we are constantly developing new ones. If a repetitive research task can be automated or simplified, we want to build the solution.
Advanced AI Usage
Artificial intelligence is changing what is possible in genealogy. We use AI to assist with handwriting recognition on old parish registers, to identify patterns across large datasets, and to help researchers make connections that would be difficult to spot manually. AI does not replace careful human research, but it is a powerful tool when used thoughtfully, and we are at the forefront of applying it to Irish genealogical records.
We are also exploring how AI can help with record transcription, name variant matching, and intelligent search across fragmented datasets. As these capabilities mature, we will integrate them into our tools and services.
GEDCOM Manipulation
GEDCOM files are the standard way to store and share family tree data, but working with them can be frustrating. Files exported from one platform often do not import cleanly into another. Duplicates creep in. Sources get lost. Formatting breaks.
We offer GEDCOM manipulation services to help you clean, merge, restructure, and validate your family tree files. Whether you need to combine trees from multiple researchers, strip out errors before uploading to a new platform, or extract a specific branch for sharing, we have the tools and expertise to handle it.
Our API Services
For developers, researchers, and organisations working with Irish genealogical data, we provide API access to our datasets and tools. Our API allows you to programmatically query townland data, access census link information, and integrate Irish Roots functionality into your own applications and workflows.
We believe that genealogical data should be accessible and interoperable. Our API is designed to be straightforward to use, well documented, and reliable — whether you are building a research tool, populating a database, or creating a custom application for your local heritage society.
What Comes Next
This launch is just the beginning. We have an ambitious roadmap of new tools, expanded datasets, and enhanced services planned for the months ahead. We will be sharing updates, research tips, and stories from Irish genealogy right here on the blog.
If you have Irish roots — or if you are helping others find theirs — we would love to hear from you. Explore our tools, get in touch, and let us help you uncover the Irish story in your family tree.