New Royal Irish Constabulary Service Records available at to search at Findmypast
- Over 486,000 RIC service records released online
- Thousands of new records added to existing collection of RIC histories & directories
Today, December 2nd 2016, over 530,000 Royal Irish Constabulary records have been published online at Findmypast. The release consists of one brand new collection, Royal Irish Constabulary Service Records 1816-1922, and new additions to their existing collection of Royal Irish Constabulary History & Directories.
Digitised from original records held by The National Archives, the newRoyal Irish Constabulary Service Records 1816-1922 collection contains a wide variety of documents from the series HO 184.Each record includes both an image of the original document and a transcript of the information it recorded.
What’s in the collections?
The collection will allow researchers from all over the world to uncover intimate details of their ancestor’s career with the RIC and consists of over 486,000 records pertaining to the running and administration of the force. This includes;
- Auxiliary division general registers: nominal rolls that recorded member’s service number, rank, dispersed date, and company name. The registers also include division journals that recorded dates of appointment, promotions, and medical details.
- Clerical staff: record of service and salaries: lists of clerical staff that include birth date, age at appointment, rank, department and salary.
- Constabulary Force Funds: correspondence registers of members who paid into the fund with notes on whether they had been pensioned, died or received any rewards from the fund.
- Constabulary lists: Lists of chief constables created during the first year of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
- Disbandment registers: Lists of serving members who were with the force in 1922 when it disbanded after the creation of the Free Irish State. They also noted the number of years the constable served and their recommended pension.
- General registers: Records of constables’ service history. The entries include the individual’s birth date, native county, religion, previous occupation, date of appointment, and promotions, as well as any rewards or punishments received and the date of pension or discharge.
- Nominal returns, arranged by counties: lists of all serving members of the Royal Irish Constabulary organised by county that recorded the individual’s number, rank, name, religion, date of appointment, marital status, and station location.
- Officers’ registers: lists of Officers that include transfers and dates, favourable and unfavourable records, dates of promotions and details of previous military service.
- Pensions and gratuities: pension records that reveal the constable’s rate of pay and the amount of pension calculated.
- Recruits index: Lists of new recruits, their dates of appointment and arrival, and their company.
Royal Irish Constabulary Service Records 1816-1922 also contains a variety of additional documents that record details of the Force’s daily operations. These include correspondences, intelligence notes, programmes of ceremony, constabulary codes and lists of “good men” to name but a few. Over 43,000 additional records have also been added to Findmypast’s existing Royal Irish Constabulary History & Directoriescollection, an archive of publications printed between 1840 and 1921 that provide further insight into the inner workings and history of the organisation.
The publication marks the latest step in Findmypast’s commitment to making Irish family history more accessible. In less than 5 years, Findmypast have made over 110 million records (with 300 million names) available online for the first time.
Where can I search them?
The records are available to search at:
About The Royal Irish Constabulary
The Royal Irish Constabulary was established as a peace-keeping force dedicated to the detection and prevention of crime throughout Ireland. They also took over the responsibility of the Revenue Police to enforce the laws of whiskey production. The force trained at Phoenix Park Depot.
During the Irish War of Independence, RIC barracks were the targets of frequent attacks from the Irish Republican Army. Due to a decrease in members for reasons of death, injury, low recruitment, and resignation, the British government dispatched auxiliary forces of ex-servicemen to make up the numbers. This auxiliary force became known as the Black and Tans because of their uniform and were notorious for their brutality. The Anglo-Irish treaty ended the war on 6 December 1921 and the Irish Free State was established in January 1922. The Royal Irish Constabulary was disbanded in August 1922 and a new police force, Garda Síochána, took its place. In Northern Ireland, the police force became the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
About Findmypast
Findmypast (previously DC Thomson Family History) is a British-owned world leader in online family history. It has an unrivalled record of online innovation in the field and 18 million registered users across its family of online brands, which includes Lives of the World War 1, The British Newspaper Archive and Genes Reunited, amongst others.
Its lead brand, also called Findmypast, is a searchable online archive of over eight billion family history records, ranging from parish records and censuses to migration records, military collections, historical newspapers and lots more. For members around the world, the site is a crucial resource for building family trees and conducting detailed historical research.
In April 2003, Findmypast was the first online genealogy site to provide access to the complete birth, marriage, and death indexes for England & Wales, winning the Queen’s Award for Innovation. Since that time, the company has digitized records from across the globe, including major collections from Britain, Ireland, Australia, and the United States. Findmypast, in association with The National Archives, recently launched the 1939 Register, a record of 41 million lives on the eve of World War II.
