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Local History Online

This resource provides free digital access to full-text files, images and other related information from our local studies collection.

Explore Waterford newspapers, photographs, journals, books, local places and subjects.

Digital editions of local historical newspapers including the Dungarvan Leader, Dungarvan Observer and Waterford Chronicle. Free to all users.

*Due to essential maintenance, digital editions of the Waterford Mail are temporarily unavailable. 

The Waterford Mail is available to view on microfilm in Waterford Central Library. To book a research appointment to access microfilms please contact Central Library 051 849975 or email: lstudies@waterfordcouncil.ie

Access premium newspaper subscription services listed below from a computer at your local library. Library Membership required.

BorrowBox - Digital Newspapers

Read newspapers anytime, anywhere on any device!

BorrowBox allows library members to read digital newspapers for free, in any location, at any time, on any device.

To access the service download the BorrowBox app and sign in with your library membership details. Select the "ePress" section once you are signed in. Alternatively to access on a computer, visit https://waterford.borrowbox.com/, click on 'Sign-In' and then enter your library membership details. Select the "ePress" section from the menu at the top of the screen to browse newspapers.

For more information about this service please contact your local library.

Irish Newspaper Archive
Irish Newspaper Archives contains electronic versions of Irish newspapers from the 1700s to current day. With the Irish Newspaper Archives you can search, retrieve and view newspapers from 1700s to the present (except for the last 10 days (dailies) or most recent issue (weeklies). Local users will find The Munster Express here.

You can access this service from Library Branches using Library PCs only. 

Irish Times Digital Archive
This collection contains all articles published by the Irish Times from 1859 onwards. Invaluable for social research and gaining a wider historical perspective on local events.

You can access this service from Library Branches using Library PCs only. 

 

 

For more information please contact your local library.

Journals:

Digital editions of ‘Decies’ from 1976 onwards and ‘Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society’, 1894-1920.

  • Decies
    ‘Decies: Journal of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society’ is a major source of archaeological, geographic and social information about Waterford City and County. This service is free to all users.
  • JWSEIAS
    The Journal of the Waterford and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society, volumes published between 1895 and 1915. This service is free to all users.
  • JSTOR Ireland Collection
    Access the JSTOR Ireland Collection online, a premium library resource of ninety Irish Studies Journal titles. This service requires use of a Library based PC and membership.

Books:

Browse popular Waterford heritage collections on our Photo Archive including the Annie Brophy Collection, Lawrence Collection and more.

Searchable database of townlands and civil parishes featuring location maps and related resources along with Irish and English audio files to assist with local placename pronunciation.

A collection of over 200 maps relating to Waterford City and County from 1050 to present times is available in Central Library. All ordnance Survey maps are governed by copyright and permission should be sought from the Ordnance Survey to photocopy any portion of OS maps.

Maps are not catalogued at present, however there is an index to all historic maps held in the Central Library on the notice board in the Local Studies Room.

 

  • Ordnance Survey Ireland Historic Maps
    Between 1829 and 1842 Ordnance Survey Ireland completed the first ever large-scale survey of an entire country. Acclaimed for their accuracy, these maps are regarded by cartographers as amongst the finest ever produced. As the national mapping archive service of Ireland, OSI has captured this and later mapping data in a digitised format. Ordnance Survey Ireland website also includes access to the important 25” series indexed by parish which was completed in 1913. These maps are particularly relevant for genealogy or for those with an interest in social history.

 

  • Open Street Map
    Open Street Map is a free, editable map of the whole world that is being built by volunteers largely from scratch and released with an open-content license. The Open Street Map License allows access to map images and underlying map data.

Get started with your Family History Research.

Access a range of premium subscription services useful for family history research from a computer at your local library. Services available to Library Members include full subscriptions to:

The Local Studies Department in Central Library, Waterford is in possession of a wonderful collection of over 130 historical postcards, dating from the beginning of the 20th century. We are currently undertaking a new project to digitize this collection and make it available to everyone online. The full collection will be digitized and made available in the coming months. View a selection of Postcards from the collection.

Now is a great time to find out more about your history or the history of your village, townland or community. View a selection of Local History Videos. 

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