Over 1.6 million historic records of employees at Dublin’s famous Guinness Storehouse have been published online in time for St Patrick’s Day.
The records were digitised by family history website Ancestry in partnership with the Guinness Storehouse Archives.
Ancestry has added two sets of records – ‘Guinness Trade Ledgers, 1860-1960’ (consisting of 1,452,426 records) and ‘Guinness Employee Records, 1799-1939’ (consisting of 204,605 records).
Although many of the employees were based in Dublin, there are also employees based in London, Cork and anywhere Guinness had breweries. During the First World War, many employees are marked as ‘Army Candidate’.
Todd Goddfrey, Vice President of Global Content at Ancestry, said: “We’re thrilled to give people a chance to connect with a new part of their heritage and fill any gaps in their family trees. With the rich history of Guinness, digitising these records allows people to explore an entirely new side of their culture–no matter how much they currently know about their background. Our partnership with Guinness has been a decade-long endeavour and we are excited to bring it to Ancestry this St. Patrick’s Day.”
Eibhlin Colgan, Archive Manager at Guinness Storehouse, said: “Guinness is at the heart of Irish history, making our partnership with Ancestry a truly special moment in time. We’re a brand with a history that dates back over 260 years and has seen countless generations of families employed at the St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin since Arthur Guinness Senior first signed his 9,000-year lease back in 1759. And today, we’re excited to be connecting families across the world with their ancestors who have helped keep the magic of Guinness alive for centuries.”