Irish parish records from 19th century are digitized and online!

The National Library of Ireland has digitized the parish records from the mid-to-late-nineteenth century and

placed them online HERE. This is a great resource for anyone with a genealogical connection to this time in Ireland. Parishes recorded births, marriages, and deaths. As with all Irish genealogical records, they can be frustratingly sketchy, and there are gaps in coverage. Some parish records survived in better condition than others. I still am having a difficult time locating some great-great grandparents in both Galway and Mayo who could not be found in any database. For example, I found my great-grandfather Daniel Folan in the baptism register, but not his wife, my great-grandmother Margaret O'Toole (this is them to the right from their 1896 wedding).  My hope was that I could find her on the hand written manuscript material, but, alas, I have not tracked her down yet. But, I did notice that there are some homeland names (when they are legible and/or recorded at all) from areas outside of the parish, so I am cautiously optimistic I can find her in a neighboring area when I get the time to look for them. Although I have not yet made any earth shattering finds, I been able to get a couple of clues, such as names of sponsors, which could be siblings of the parents. This gives a couple of more leads to investigate in the future. Please let me know if you make any interesting finds in your search for your own ancestors in the NLI parish records.