North Jersey History & Genealogy Center

Guides for Research-Pathfinders

Pathfinders are guides to help you get started doing research on a particular topic.

Exploring Irish-American History & Genealogy

These are just some of the items from our collection that may assist you. Please ask a History Center Librarian for advice on further research.

Books from our Collection:

Genealogy and Family History:

A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering your Irish ancestors: How to find and Record your Unique Heritage. Radford, Dwight A.
H929.01415 Rad

Tracing your Irish ancestors: The Complete Guide.

Grenham, John
H929.01415 Gre

The Book of Irish families, Great and Small. O’Laughlin, Michael C. With volumes for Counties Kerry, Clare, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Dublin.
H929.01415 O’Lau

Irish Records:

Irish Records: Sources For Family and Local History. Ryan, James G.
H929.01415 Rya

Irish church records: Their History, Availability and Use in Family and Local History Research.
H929.01415 Iri

Master book of Irish placenames: Master Atlas and Placename Locator. O’Laughlin, Michael C.
H929.01415 O’Lau

Immigration:

Irish emigrants in North America. Dobson, David
H929.3 Dob

Ships from Ireland to early America, 1623-1850. Dobson, David
H929.3 Dob

Irish passenger lists 1803-1806: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Ireland to America. 
H929.3 Iri

Passengers from Ireland: Lists of Passengers arriving at American ports between 1811 and 1817.Schlegel, Donald M.
H929.3 Sch

Ireland and Irish immigration to the New World from 1815 to the famine.Adams, William Forbes
H929.3 Ada

The Famine Immigrants: Lists of Irish immigrants Arriving at the Port of New York, 1846-1851. 7 volumes.
H929.3 Fa

The Search for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot. 7 volumes.
H974.461 Sea

Voices of the Irish immigrant: Information ads in the Truth Teller, New York City, 1825-1844.

Local, State and Region:

Greeting the Past: A Walking tour of the Dublin neighborhood in Morristown, N.J. Turkington, Cheryl C.
HM6 Tur

Published in 2006 and available for sale in the History Center for $5 plus tax.

The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American life. Quinn, Dermot
H2 Quin

The New Jersey Ethnic Experience. Cunningham, Barbara (editor)
H2 Cun

The Story of a Parish: The First Catholic Church in Morristown, N.J.: its Foundation and Development, 1847-1892. Flynn, Joseph M.
HM6.16 Flynn

Living stones: A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Paterson. Kupke, Raymond J.
H2 Kup

Guide to Northern New Jersey Catholic Parish and Institutional Records. Wosh, Peter J.
H2 Wosh

Browsing certain subject listings will be helpful in your Irish research. Be sure to check both the online catalog, as well as our card catalog as some older items are not on the electronic catalog. Some subject headings to look at are:

Ireland–Census
Ireland–Emigration and Immigration
Ireland–Genealogy
Ireland–History
Irish Americans–Genealogy
Irish Americans–History

Be sure to also use the indexes to The Jerseyman and search for Irish names, streets and activities to find 19th and early 20th century information relating to Morris County. The Jerseyman is now available as PDF images (in the History Center) or microfilm.

The History Center also holds the Boston Transcript genealogy columns (1896-1941) on microfiche. This source contains information on many Irish names. Microfiche GE0005

Vertical Files:

Newspaper clippings and other information on topical subjects. There are also files on specific family names.
Morristown–Irish
Morristown–Churches–Catholic

On the Web:

General:

Ancestry Ireland
Genuki–Ireland
Irish Ancestors (Irish Times)

Records:

DirectGov (will have Irish information)
FreeUKGen
General Register Office (Ireland)–Research
Griffiths Valuation, 1848-1864

Immigration:

National Archives–Immigration Records
National Archives–Passengers Who Arrived During Irish Famine
Boston Passenger Manifests
Ellis Island
The Boston Pilot

Institutions:

National Archives of Ireland–Genealogy

Databases:

Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest have an abundance of resources including census records, the Social Security Death Index, newspaper & periodical collections, deeds & court records and city directories. Additionally, Ancestry contains several unique databases documenting Irish-American history:

• Boston, New York and Philadelphia Passenger lists
• Irish Immigrants (New York, 1846-1851)
• Ship Passenger Lists From Ireland (18th century)
• New York Petitions For Naturalization (1792-1934)
• Emigrant Savings Bank (1850-1883)–Established by the Irish Emigrant Society. Thousands of Irish immigrants’ information is contained in their records.