The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, commonly known as the Visual Treasury, is a new source that is a work in progress but is yielding some wonderful discoveries for family historians and researchers.
The Virtual Treasury website was created by the Beyond 2022 Project. This project was created as a collaboration between Trinity College, Dublin, the Public Records of Northern Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, the National Archives (UK) and the Irish Manuscripts Commission to try to preserve and to extract the fragments which survived the Four Courts Fire in Dublin, Ireland on 30 June 1922.[1] This fire destroyed many records including church and civil records, medieval manuscripts, wills, and title deeds. Those items that were saved (even just fragments) were preserved and stored with the hope that they might be salvageable at some later date.
The project participants have created a 3D model of what the Four Courts and the Records Room looked like before the Fire. The participants have also begun the process of recapturing the contents of some of the fragments which will be discussed below.
Research your ancestors on MyHeritage
Information available
For example, many of the 19th century census returns between the years of 1821-1851 were destroyed. However, fragments were saved and the researchers have been able to add to the small number of returns recently. One of the documents is a return in 1821 for those who were printers or pipers in Counties Cork, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo).[2]
The documents also include land deeds which give not only detailed descriptions of the land, but also names of witnesses, named lives (in the case of a lease for lives) as well as other neighbors ' names for boundary locations.[3]
The Virtual Treasury website can be searched by name, date, location or keywords making it very accessible and useful for a variety of research purposes. In addition, researchers should note that this website is a continuing work in progress and that new material is being added to it regularly.[4]
Explore more about The Virtual Treasury
- Genealogical Treasures in Irish Archives webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Irish ancestors – Top 5 websites you need to know about webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland