THREE centuries of Irish records will be published online today, detailing more than 40 million records of births, marriages and deaths between 1742 and 1958.

THE British family history website Ancestry.co.uk today launches a collection of 19th century historical Irish records, to help Irish family historians and the estimated 80 million people worldwide of Irish descent to explore their heritage.

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s ancestry has been traced back to a shoemaker in a small Irish village.