Earlier this week, I posted on my socials about the older National Archives genealogy site being offline. Courtesty of the WayBack Machine, which has many captures, you can still navigate parts of that site.
This was subsequently confirmed with the following notice on their main “search the collections” page.
I’m pleased to hear they are upgrading the site but note no return date. And there was no warning. I suspect something broke and they couldn’t patch it any longer. I was in the National Archives just after the site was removed on 20th July and they said they would be putting in place some details on what to do in the meantime but they didn’t immediately have any online solutions. Sigh. They have a blog explainer up but it doesn’t actually explain much or give any links to alternatives. ETA 2: following questions at the Kilrush Genealogy Conference (Oct 2026), it was confirmed by Zoe Reid of the NAI that the National Cyber Security Centre asked them to take it down but no further details were given.
So what’s on this page and where else can you access it? I’ve checked the card catalogues for Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and Familysearch to see where there is overlap and shortfall. Rootsireland may have coverage of some of these records individually by county as well. All of these except Familysearch will require a subscription but within them some of these collections are free to access with a user account. I’m going to add to this list as I find them but for now I have at least one place for each of the categories missing from the National Archives site.
The 1901/1911 census and the 1821-1851 census fragments in their older format (the ones that link from the commercial sites) are the biggie. But they are also the ones which are accessible on the NAI site, so apart from your broken links, there’s nothing to worry about here. There’s 3 different search sites for 1901/1911, 19th century fragments and the new 1926 census. Here is a link converter from old to new.
Tithe Applotment Books 1823-1827 on Familysearch and Ancestry.
Valuation Office preparatory works for Griffith’s Valuation on Ancestry and Familysearch.
Census search forms on Familysearch and Ancestry
Will Registers 1857-1900 on Familysearch
Calendars of wills 1858-1920 on Familysearch
Shipping registers of crews in the Merchant Navy (1863-1920) on Familysearch and Ancestry and FMP
Diocesan marriage licence bonds on Familysearch
Diocesan wills 1595-1858 on Familysearch
Soldiers’ wills from World War I (and a very few from the Boer War) on Findmypast (transcript only)
Convert rolls on Familysearch
While they were not part of the main genealogy site, the microsites for the records of the Office of the Chief Secretary of Ireland 1818-1833 and the Convict Transportation Database are also gone offline, which I hadn’t originally realised. These datasets are not available online anywhere else so accessing them requires a visit to Bishop St for the time being.
Please let me know if you find a collection elsewhere.
Thank you Claire. I just tried to access the old genealogy site on the National Archives website and to my dismay I couldn’t find it. I didn’t come across any information about the situation on their site either. I just floundered in looking for the data, until I googled it. I was glad to see that you had posted about it.
I think the National Archives IT team cludged the 1926 Census in and made a mess of the site overall. Now they are trying to fix the situation.
You’re welcome! They are being slow to post a proper update on the matter.
I don’t know how long it will remain there but the Wayback Machine gives access to the old site. Selecting a day and then going to the census, for example, might return a not found, but other dates of capture are given.
Very useful suggestion!
This has been fantastic help. Frustratingly, some of the Valuation Office records on Family Search are not available to view, and of course they have to be the ones in east Co. Limerick I’m looking for. I haven’t tried your link to the records on Ancestry yet though so fingers crossed I find the parish of Galbally there.
Keep up the good work.
You’re welcome!
Some collections need to be viewed at an affiliate library or FamilySearch centre. The VO records aren’t in that group though.