Ireland Court Records

Court records contain information about people who were involved in litigation or other court matters. Most court records provide lists of people who served as defendants, plaintiffs, jurors, or witnesses. Court records may provide these individuals' residences, occupations, physical descriptions, and family relationships.

Irish court records are broadly classed as temporal or ecclesiastical. The temporal courts include the Courts of Chancery, Exchequer, King's Bench, Common Pleas, and individual county courts. The ecclesiastical courts had jurisdiction over ecclesiastical issues, matrimony, and probate. The ecclesiastical courts include the Prerogative and Consistory. See:

Falley, Margaret Dickson. Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research. 2 vols. Evanston, Illinois: Margaret Dickson Falley, 1961-62. (FHL book Ref 941.5 D27f 2 vols.) The book provides a good description of court records and lists repositories and published inventories of court records. Many of the published inventories she notes are available at the Family History Library. They are listed in the Place Search of the catalog under the following headings:

IRELAND - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

IRELAND - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES - INDEXES

IRELAND - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES - INVENTORIES, REGISTERS, CATALOGS

The Family History Library has few court records. Court records available at the library are listed in the Place Search of the catalog under the following headings:

IRELAND - COURT RECORDS

IRELAND, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS