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A short post. For those of you who research Suffolk Records, Ancestry's recent release of four Suffolk BMD datasets will be very welcome, not least because it means that if, like me, you don't live in Suffolk, you should be able to avoid the long journey to Suffolk Archives in Ipswich. Before this release the most extensive collection of Suffolk Parish Register records available online were the datasets to be found on FindMyPast. Those were created from data collected by the

***Updated 28 Dec 2025*** If you have ever found yourself looking for Death Duty Register entries, you will know the routine: search the 'Index To Death Duty Registers 1796-1903' dataset on FindMyPast by surname and year to find the entry you want, record the surname, year, and folio number because you will need them to find the actual Death Duty Register entry, on The National Archives website search Discovery under IR 26 for the year and browse the results of this search to

I was inspired to write this blog post because of the amount of time I had spent struggling to understand what makes Irish family history research a different world from English research. I hope that it will help you spend less time stumbling around! This post is not intended to be a substitute for studying books and websites in order to learn more about the place and its records. Consider it to be a starting point instead. History Irish history can be a polarising subject si