Total number of index records in the database is:

Registry of Deeds Index Project
Ireland

This is the home page of the Registry of Deeds Index Project

This page show how in index and submit the index entries to the project. How to guide

Here is an example of how to use the database — Example

Here is a reference to the codes used in this site— Codes

Another way to look at the progress of the project and browse the index entries is: Summary of the coverage of the index

Found a memorial and would like to e-mail the index entries to a fellow researcher use this form to create a URL to include in your e-mail.

Search this site

Note: Freefind does not index PDFs.

See the search history of this site

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to index all of the names that appear in the memorial books at the registry of deeds. The Registry of Deeds is located in Henrietta Street, Dublin, Ireland and is a reposity of records of wills, land transactions in Ireland and other deeds from 1709. While most of the deeds registered prior to 1800 were related to the Protestant ascendency Catholic occupiers are sometimes mentioned. Thus the Registry of Deeds is a rich source of genealogical information. Marriage settlements are particularly informative about family relationships.

Pictures of the Registry of Deeds Dublin

Registry of Deeds support for indexing

A representative of the Property Registration Authority has indicated the Authority's support for the concept of developing a full index of names.

Their statement is as follows
"The Property Registration Authority recognises the benefits of the development of a comprehensive names index to the memorials volumes held at Registry of Deeds to assist genealogists accessing these valuable resources."

Their support for the concept of a comprehensive index does not mean they support this project above other endevours. The Property Registration Authority is in no way responsible for the quality or coverage of the indexing produced by this Project. This is the sole responsibility of the volunteers.

Update history

number of indexes and memorials indexed

Contributrions so far

number of indexes and memorials indexed

Registry of Deeds in British Parliamentary Papers

Fees collected in 1830 1831
Replacing Lord Kilwarden (Arthur WOLFE) as Registrar

How will the project work

This is a distributed project where contributors will index a small part of the records and share that information with many others. Contributors will be recognised by their code-name appearing in each their index records. Many contributors would be obtaining microfilms of the memorial volumes through the Mormon Family History Library to pursue their own research and index a small part of that memorial volume and send their contributions to the project. The following is a sample of the sort of information the project would gather.

The growing database — the output of the effort of the indexers

Sorted by name

Sorted by memorial number

Summary of the coverage of the index

The coverage people have indicated they will index

Meanings of the codes and numbers

Volume is the volume number of the memorial book. These were sequential until 1833 after which the volunes were numbered by year and then volume in year. Thus we have volume 183301 to 183320. Each volume of these later had 300 memorials. The page numbers are the page number of the volume prior to 1833 afterwards they are the number of the deed memorial in that year.

The number of the memorial were sequential until 1833. Thereafter the number are represented as the volume number concatinated with the memorial number in the volume. eg 183301001 to 183301300.

Year, Month and day of the date of the current date is the earliest date on the deed and the release. Write as written so that 1 January 1710 will mean 1 January 1710/1.

Current deed type —

L = lease
L + R = Lease and release
Mge = mortgage
ID = indented deed
any other or if in doubt spell out.

MS or W —

MS = marriage settlement
W = will.

Family name of person — leave empty if unknown, say, in the case of the Bishop of Limerick.

Forename of person — leave empty if unknown, say, in the case of the Bishop of Limerick.

Title of the person being indexed.

Residence of the person. Give all the details given. Thus include townland or town, barony, and county if stated. Leave field blank no residence is stated. Also use this field to record family relationships mentioned in the deed or memorial.

Role in current deed — A person may have a number of roles in the deed and memorial. They can be:

A party to the deeds eg one person could be the second party in the lease and the third party in the release. This would be represented as "P2L P3R"
A life in the deed. This would be represented as life
A witness to the deed or the memorial of the deed. Use WD for a witness to the deed and WM for witness to the memorial.
The registrar with whom the deed was registered. Use REG for an official of the registry.
An occupier of some land mentioned in the deed. This is represented as O.

Role in earlier deed — A person may have a number of roles in an earlier deed mentioned in the memorial. They can be:

A party to the deeds eg one person could be the second party in the lease and the third party in the release. This would be represented as "P2L P3R"
A life in the deed. This would be represented as life
An occupier of some land mentioned in the deed. This is represented as O.

Year, Month and day of the date of the date of the earlier deed. Write as written so that 1 January 1710 will mean 1 January 1710/1.

Signed memorial — enter "A" in this field if the person signed the memorial in the role of a party or witness of the memorial. Note: if a person is a witness of the deed but not the memorial leave the field blank.

In the field comments add any relevent additional data not captured in other fields. Do not use more than 254 characters.

Indexer — the code for the indexer

cd — Is an alphabetic code that can be used to refer to people in the deed. In the comments field you might say: "A set to B for lives of C, D and E" where the letters are in the rows of the people referenced.

Most important

It is most important to capture the volume, page and memorial numbers, and the names. The other information while useful is less important and can be omitted.

How to help

Whenever you look at a memorial volume, take a little extra time and index a few pages using the above format. Send the data as a spereadsheet file (excel, Lotus 1-2-3, comma separated variable (CSV) file) or as a database file. Template file for excel and 123 are at the following links. Right click on the link and save the file to your computer.

The excel file
The excel file with macros to assist making abstracts
NewThe excel file with macros to assist making abstracts with different macro buttons
How to use the macro sheet to convert written abstracts to the database format

The CSV file
The Lotus 123 file
Microsoft Word 2003 file coded up abstractNew
Microsoft Word 2003 file database table
Rich text format file coded up abstractNew
Rich text format file database table

Then send the file by email to the webmaster of this site using the button below.

An atlernative way is to uses this form as you do your abstracting to send the information for each deed to the webmaster.

If you have a number of abstracts or copies of memorials of deeds you could extract the name and other information and add the information to the database using any of the above mentioned methods. The page numbers may not be exact but they will be helpful enough as a starting point.