The purpose of this book is to highlight the most important documentary evidence available to the family historian wishing to research their Irish ancestry. It is aimed primarily at researchers whose time in Irish repositories is limited, and who want to know what is available locally and online. It covers more than eighteen individual sources of information, making it simpler to organise your search and easier to carry it out both locally and on the ground.

This books covers:
- Where to begin
- Researching online
- Civil registration
- Making sense of census returns, wills, election records
- Migration, emigration
- Local government and church records