Ireland Newspaper Birth Notices

Each record includes a thin index and the original newspaper announcement. The index is meant as a finding aid and you should always click through to the image of the announcement to see fuller details. The amount of information listed varies greatly according to newspaper and date, but the records usually include a combination of the following information:

• Name

• Birth date

• Names of parents

• Residence

• Publication title

• Publication date

Note that many entries do not name the child born, or give the mother’s name in full. A common format of announcement is that which states merely "to the wife of Patrick O’Connor, a daughter" or similar. In other words, First Name(s) and Mother's First Name(s) fields are often blank in the search results and transcriptions. For this reason, we recommend searching initially by surname and year.

Explore this collection of newspaper birth notices and discover how births were announced in the press. All notices were paid announcements usually written by a family member and sent in to the newspaper; the fact that they had to be paid for will have influenced the phrasing and length of announcements.

The three periodicals included in this collection as follows:

• Belfast Morning News

• Champion or Sligo News

• Cork Examiner

Begin your search broadly with just a first and last name. However, if you are unable to find your relative on your first search, you should try searching without forename, as many births were announced without use of the first name (and, indeed, many birth notices were published before a child had been named).

Place and County relate to the place of newspaper publication and not to the event itself, which may have taken place elsewhere. Most births will have taken place in the vicinity or catchment area of the newspaper concerned but it was not uncommon for a distant birth to be announced in a newspaper so that family of a couple who had removed were made aware of the happy event.