DUBLIN (CNS) – The Catholic Church and the National Library of Ireland have partnered to make almost 400,000 images of Catholic parish register microfilms available online for free.

A National Library of Ireland statement called the records the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 census.

Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover nearly 1,100 parishes throughout Ireland and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records.

“Most census records from this period were destroyed in the Four Courts fire of 1922, so these parish registers are the most comprehensive surviving source of information on Irish families in the 1700s and 1800s,” said Colette O’Flaherty, head of special collections at the National Library of Ireland.