What is in the online catalogue
Our online catalogue features over 2 million entries. They mainly consist of:
- records from government departments
- modern court records, post 1922
- testamentary material, such as wills
How to find older material
To find material from the 19th and early 20th century you should consult the hard copy catalogues in the Reading Room. This includes records transferred before our online catalogue was created.
Hard copy catalogues in the Reading Room include:
- early departmental records
- public bodies like the Ordnance Survey, Valuation Office, and the Office of Public Works
- older court records
- some archives of the Commissioners of National Education
- most private and business collections
How to use the online catalogue
Learn how to use the online catalogue to get the most out of your search.
Simple search
Use Simple Search to look for a word or term across the entire online catalogue.
This is useful if you want to find a particular thing, like the ‘Calendar of Wills 1924’. This search will return a link to a PDF of the calendar or index of wills granted in 1924.
If you want to do a more detailed search or your search term is common in many file names, use Advanced Search.
Advanced search
Use Advanced Search to make your search more specific.
- Start by searching by ‘Title’ or ‘Scope and Content’.
- Then use the fields ‘Reference Code’ or ‘Archive Creator’ or ‘Year From’ or ‘Year To’ to narrow this search down.
Reference codes
Each record transferred to the National Archives must have a unique reference code. This is a unique identifier for an individual document or a series of related documents. This ensures document security and prevents duplication.
A reference code can be numeric (only numbers) or alphanumeric (a combination of numbers and letters).
Numeric reference codes
From 2000 onwards, all reference codes are numeric and in three parts. For example, 2015/77/86 refers to file 86 from the Office of the Secretary General to the President, which was the 77th transfer to the National Archives in 2015.
Alphanumeric reference codes
Older materials may have alphanumeric codes. For instance, CSO/RP/1822/17 refers to file 17 from the Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers for 1822.
Title search
Title search is a keyword search of file titles. Most archives in the National Archives are catalogued by file title. These could be a subject, a place, or a person’s name (especially in testamentary records).
When you don’t know the title of a file, it’s helpful to think about what it might have been called. For instance, what terminology might have been used when the record was created? The terminology in file titles often reflects the social and political context of the time.
Archive creator
Use this field to narrow your search to the organisation that transferred the archive. The National Archives holds records from government departments, courts, and various public bodies. We also have many business and private collections deposited by individuals and private bodies.
For example, if you’re looking for a file from the Department of the Taoiseach, type its name into the Archive Creator field to narrow your search.
Scope & Content
This is a keyword search of the detailed description of a document. It provides more information about its contents and can help refine your search. It can also help you find documents that might not be obvious from the file title alone.
Date function
Year From and Year To: These fields allow you to search for records within specific date ranges using the following options:
Between: Enter dates in the ‘from’ and ‘to’ boxes to search for records within that date range (e.g., ‘1970–1980’). Using the drop-down menu you can select the following options:
- =: Searches for records from a specific year (e.g., ‘1975’).
- <: Searches for records before a specific year, excluding that year (e.g., entering ‘1975’ searches for records before 1975).
- >: Searches for records after a specific year, excluding that year (e.g., entering ‘1975’ searches for records after 1975).
- <=: Searches for records before and including a specific year (e.g., entering ‘1975’ searches for records up to and including 1975).
- >=: Searches for records after and including a specific year (e.g., entering ‘1975’ searches for records from 1975 onwards).
Wildcard search
Use an asterisk (*) to represent unknown characters or numbers. For instance, type 2023/1/* in the Reference Code search field to view individual file descriptions of all the Department of the Taoiseach: Central Registry files transferred in 2023.