Our Activities

Since its foundation CIGO has been at the forefront of dialogue and consultation with State agencies throughout Ireland on all matters of relevance to genealogists, such as:

Continuous effort to improve public service at the General Register Office Dublin (GROI) and other state record repositories, by initiating discussions with the responsible authorities.
Constructive criticism of impending legislation. We were to the fore in obtaining changes to the Civil Registration Act 2004; and in particular we lobbied successfully for changes to the Bill providing for fuller information to be recorded in all future death registrations in Ireland.
Official membership of advisory bodies, such as the users’ groups of Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and General Register Office Northern Ireland (GRONI).
Availing of opportunities to influence government policy in relation to genealogy. In recent times we have presented submissions to the National Library of Ireland (NLI), GROI, Registry of Deeds (ROD), GRONI. In relation to GRONI our involvement was successful in getting a reversal in draft policy set to deny access to many civil (vital) records.

Other activities include our publication series under the general title ‘Exploring Irish Genealogy’, which have proved very popular both inside and outside Ireland. For example number two in the series is Irish Civil Registration – Where Do I Start?, and is the first publication ever to deal with the subject of Irish vital records in such depth and breadth – a vital tool for anyone approaching the subject. Details of our publications, and those of our member organisations, are available at our web bookstore.