You may be in luck: Those long-lost Irish ancestors might be waiting for you in the more than 1.6 million historical records Ancestry.com digitized from the Guinness Storehouse Archives. The collection will be available for free research on Ancestry.com through March 22, 2024.
“No matter when your family left (Ireland), there is a possibility that you could make a connection," Ancestry Corporate Genealogist Crista Cowan told CNN, adding, "Or even if you have family that stayed, there’s a possibility that you can make a connection in this collection, and I just think that’s a huge boon for people."
What's In the Records?
The digitized records capture details of Guinness' Dublin, Ireland, St. James Gate Brewery employees including home addresses, occupations, names and ages of household members, spouses, marriages, children, salaries, leaves of absence, and more. The collection covers from 1799 to 1939, when Guinness was the largest single private employer in Ireland. These may be some of the only written records to exist from this period relating to former Guinness employees and some of the only available records for women during this period.
Images courtesy of Guinness Archives
"We're thrilled to give people a chance to connect with a new part of their heritage and fill any gaps in their family trees," said Todd Goddfrey, Vice President of Global Content at Ancestry. "With the rich history of Guinness, digitizing these records allows people to explore an entirely new side of their culture–no matter how much they currently know about their background. Our partnership with Guinness has been a decade-long endeavor, and we are excited to bring it to Ancestry this St. Patrick's Day."
Crista herself has Irish roots, and knows the challenges faced by researchers of ancestors with common names, like John O'Brien. “Forty million Irish descendants live outside Ireland, and particularly a large percentage of those that live in the United States are seeking or craving that connection to the homeland,” Cowan told CNN. “To be able to actually figure out which John O’Brien is your great-great-grandfather, out of the 350 of them that lived in an area of Ireland where you think your family might be from, becomes a real challenge,” Cowan said.
The Guinness Archives are some of the oldest Irish records available through Ancestry. A devastating fire at Dublin's Public Records Office in 1922, at the beginning of Ireland's Civil War, destroyed census, vital, and probate records.
Generations of families have worked at Guinness in Dublin, including those of famous Irish natives like Bono, Liam Neeson, and Graham Norton.
"Guinness is at the heart of Irish history, making our partnership with Ancestry a truly special moment in time," said Eibhlin Colgan, archive manager at Guinness Storehouse. "We're a brand with a history that dates back over 260 years and has seen countless generations of families employed at the St. James's Gate brewery in Dublin since Arthur Guinness Sr. first signed his 9,000-year lease in 1759. And today, we're excited to be connecting families across the world with their ancestors who have helped keep the magic of Guinness alive for centuries."