There has been a recent announcement regarding Church of Ireland records which will be great news for genealogists and family historians. The Representative Church Body Library recently announced they received a € 100,000 capital grant from the Irish Department of Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht for the purpose of digitising over 800 Church of Ireland parish records. Some of the earliest registers date back to 1619. The digitisation project will make these records available online in collaboration with the Irish government website: www.irishgenealogy.ie. The funding makes possible imaging equipment and technical support necessary to make the project successful.
These records will not only include registers already in the possession at the RCB library but eventually will also include parish registers that are in local parish custody. A few of these parish registers have been transcribed on the RCB library's website: https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library. Eventually the plan will include an index to the content.
Both the RCB Library and the Government's cultural department agree this project will assure the long-term preservation of the original records as well as providing access to these important documents worldwide.
More information on the digitisation project can be found on the RCB library's website: https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/8247/100000-grant-supports-digitisation-of.