He should certainly make his way to the Registry of Deeds in King’s Inn, for there he will be sure to have valuable finds, and he can search in the office all day long on payment of two shillings and sixpence.
Indeed, the pedigree-hunter will be more than surprised at the number of deeds under each name which the copious indexes display, and as a separate index is issued (for each letter of the alphabet) for every few years, a long time might be profitably spent in the Search Room of the Registry of Deeds, and each successive visit there be increasingly beneficial.
Therefore the searcher in Ireland must not forget to devote his attention to the Registry of Deeds, King’s Inn, Dublin.
Nor should he fail to visit Trinity College, where he can peruse Matriculation Entries, which supply the father’s name and other particulars, to his heart’s content. No fees are charged for such investigations.
And if the inquiries he wishes to make relate to early times, he may find there also pedigrees of value, for fairly early pedigrees of Anglo-Irish families, as well as other similar documents of interest and importance, are preserved in T. C. D.
At the Castle, Dublin, he can visit the College of Arms, Ulster’s Office, which, of course contains a vast store of genealogical and armorial information.
The Betham MSS. are among the most important of such documents stored there.
But pedigree-hunters are not admitted far into these hallowed precincts; indeed, they are seldom now allowed to make personal searches, as officials undertake the desired investigations for stated fees.
The searcher may derive considerable benefit from visits to the principal Dublin libraries.
The National Library contains the published works already recommended, and has a most valuable stock of newspapers, some of which date from far back in the eighteenth century. Besides this, the indexes will show several out-of-print pamphlets and other papers of interest to the genealogist.