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Irish genealogical source records have been prey to an astonishing amount of destruction, the most serious instance of which was a fire at the Public Record Office in Dublin in the year 1922 which destroyed virtually all pre-1901 census records, recorded wills, and Church of Ireland parish registers. Since then, reconstructing the lost records has been a passion of historians and genealogists alike, who have succeeded in patching together substitute records and bringing to light the various indexes, abstracts, and transcriptions of records that had been made before the fire. Many such records have been published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, and they are included on this Family Archive CD (along with some additional records) and linked by a single electronic name index. Along with such celebrated source records as Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, 1848-1864 and the Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-1838, this is one of the most important collections of Irish records available. The following are the books included on the CD:

*A Guide to Copies and Abstracts of Irish Wills
*Indexes to Irish Wills, 1536-1857
*Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536-1810
*Quaker Records, Dublin, Abstracts of Wills
*Return of Owners of Land in Ireland 1876
*Irish Marriages [from Walker's Hibernian Magazine, 1771-1812]
*Ireland: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Republic of Ireland)
*Ireland: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Northern Ireland)
*County Cork, Ireland, a Collection of 1851 Census Records

System Requirements: You must have a CD-ROM drive, and in order to read the CD you must use either the Family Archive Viewer (version 4.0 or higher), which is available as a free download at http://www.genealogical.com/content/dlfav6.html, or Family Tree Maker for Windows, version 4.0 or higher (Family Tree Maker software can be ordered from www.FamilyTreeMaker.com).

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using the Family Archive Viewer:

1. Install the Family Archive Viewer CD or download it from http://www.genealogy.com/dlfav6.html.
2. Start the Viewer if it is not already running
3. Insert the CD you wish to view into the CD-ROM drive. If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.
4. The CD should open automatically, but users of later versions of the Family Archive Viewer must click the CD/magnifying glass icon in the top toolbar (above the template in some versions) to read the CD.
5. When the screen entitled “About this Family Archive�? appears, click OK where prompted.

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using Family Tree Maker:

1. Start your Family Tree Maker and open a Family File. (If the program is already running, skip to Step 2.)
2. Insert the CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive. (If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.)
3. From the View menu, select Family Finder, or select the Family Finder icon from the toolbar.
4. For FTM 2005, FTM 2006, or Version 16 or later: From the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD.

To search the CD for names, select the Search Expert button in the top right of your screen, then select "Search this archive for someone NOT from your Family File." You can also search for names by using the Index.

Note: If a window opens that contains a list of files on the CD, simply close it.