MyHeritage is now searchable in Irish (and Welsh)

MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) has added nine new languages to its website, including the Irish language and Welsh, bringing the total number of languages to fifty that users can now employ to search records on the platform. I think this is the first time that any of the major commercial genealogy websites has offered a facility for records to be searched in an Insular Celtic language. 

It should be noted that many state based genealogy websites created in the Irish republic can also be searched in Irish (Gaeilge), for example IrishGenealogy.ie, with its gaelic version accessible via at https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/ga/ - simply toggle between the words English and Gaeilge located at the top right of the screen. 

Note that the Irish census website at https://nationalarchives.ie/collections/search-the-census/ shows a toggle option between the two languages, but in fact only has an English version available at present, with a small message written as Gaeilge at the top:

Cuirfear aistriúchán ar fáil go luath 

Ár leithscéal as an míchaoithiúlacht. Cuirfear aistriúchán Gaeilge ar an leathanach seo ar fáil go luath. Go raibh maith agat as do chuid foighneachta agus muid ag obair ar leagan uasdátaithe.  

Translated as: 

Translation coming soon 

We apologize for the inconvenience. An Irish translation of this page will be available soon. Thank you for your patience while we work on an updated version. 

For more on the MyHeritage story, visit its dedicated blog post at https://blog.myheritage.com/2026/01/myheritage-expands-to-50-languages/.

I look forward to hopefully seeing Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) added st some point in the near future! (Hint!)

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Northern Irish births, marriages and deaths can now be registered in Irish

A significant development that I missed a few weeks ago in March is a new change of the law in Northern Ireland, which now allows births, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths (and other processes such as stillbirths registrations and conversions from civil partnerships to mariages and vice versa) to be registered in the Irish language (Gaeilge). 

For more on the story visit the Northern Irish Department of Finance site at https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/news/births-marriages-civil-partnerships-and-deaths-can-now-be-registered-irish-murphy.

Comment: Hopefully at some point a similar provision might be introduced for registration in Scotland in Gàidhlig!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.