Irish Birth certificates

[Blackrose87]

After reading comments from people on this forum, I decided to do a bit of research into my family history? I'd really like to be able to trace my family back to their departure from Scotland.

I've been looking around today and so far I've traced back to my great-great-great-grandfather on the 1901 census who was apparently born in 1822. ( Didn't take too long as the family has moved from the same town until my father moved to Derry)

Are there any good websites to find birth certificates from around the 1820s? Or something else to find his parents?

I know Irish records are hard to find from this time, but can anyone point me in the right direction?

[cessna152towser]

Irish records are notoriously patchy, I believe that many were destroyed by fire.
I have three Scottish grandparents and one Irish and it is the Irish branch of my family which I have found most difficult to trace back, though a lot of the information which I did eventually manage to obtain came through joining the Ulster Heritage Foundation.

[castledangerous]

They are patchy not just because some were destroyed by fire. If you were Catholic, you weren't worthy of a birth certificate until past the second half of the 19th century.

[English Bloke]

They are patchy not just because some were destroyed by fire. If you were Catholic, you weren't worthy of a birth certificate until past the second half of the 19th century.

No offence, but where did you pick up that piece of twaddle?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

They are patchy not just because some were destroyed by fire. If you were Catholic, you weren't worthy of a birth certificate until past the second half of the 19th century.

What utter rubbish! How on Earth did you ever come up with this piece of total mis-information? In Ireland compulsory registration of all births commences in 1864; prior to that time births (for all denominations) were recorded in parish registers. There was a fair amount of resistance to the compulsory registration of births (again by the clergy of all denominations) due to the fairly high percentage of illegitimate children born in Ireland (as many as one in three in some parishes).

One of the main stumbling blocks in Irish genealogy is the distinct lack of parish registers prior to 1864. These parish records were regarded as the property of the incumbent, and many were lost, simply allowed to deteriorate, or were wantonly destroyed.

[MacSpadger]

There was a large fire at the Irish GRO in 1922 where many records were destroyed, so, yes, results can be patchy.
There are places that can help, try this link.
Irish Government registration for all births, marriages and deaths in Ireland began in 1864. Records for non-Catholic marraiges began in 1845. For this reason church/parish/civil records are more useful in tracing Irish ancestry for Protestant and Catholic alike before the 1820's, but, again, the results can be patchy unless you have solid evidence to begin with.
Cessna152towser gives good advice regarding the Ulster Heritage Foundation.
I wish you the best of luck with this, Blackrose87, it's an equally frustrating and rewarding journey you are setting foot upon.

[Emmet]

If you know the parish they were born in then parish records can go back further then government ones.

[Blackrose87]

There was a large fire at the Irish GRO in 1922 where many records were destroyed, so, yes, results can be patchy.

Would the GRO have had records from all 32 countries at this time? Or would the 6 northern countries record have been in Belfast?
My father's family are all from Ballymena in Antrim, so maybe some records still exist?

My father has tried with his Presbyterian church but they only seem to have records back til 1860 or thereabouts.

[MacSpadger]

Would the GRO have had records from all 32 countries at this time? Or would the 6 northern countries record have been in Belfast?

I really don't know, sorry. I only have limited experience when I was looking for a possible Irish McCaig. (Turns out I should have been looking in Lochaber).

[hkjrb623]

I really don't know, sorry. I only have limited experience when I was looking for a possible Irish McCaig. (Turns out I should have been looking in Lochaber).

Why is there so many common surnames between Lochaber and Ireland? Is it the common way Gaelic names are Anglicized, or is there a lot of family ties between the two? I've been wondering this since my Grandfather came from Lochaber, but his father moved there from Leitrim. The surname Reynolds is common in both places. It really messed me up trying to research the geneology.