Irish Birth certificates

[Ui Meachair]

I've had success here: http://www.rootsireland.ie/ They've made the records at the various county heritage centres searchable online. It includes baptism & marriage records from many parishes, Catholic & CoI. The site isn't free* but alot cheaper that a trip to Ireland.

* You buy "credits" in Euros with your credit card. To look at a page of search results costs 1 credit, to look at the details of one record costs 5 credits, if I'm remembering correctly. The whole credit concept is new so I'm not sure how it all works. It used to be free to look at search results page and 5 Euros to see the details.

[Blackrose87]

I've had success here: http://www.rootsireland.ie/ They've made the records at the various county heritage centres searchable online. It includes baptism & marriage records from many parishes, Catholic & CoI. The site isn't free* but alot cheaper that a trip to Ireland.

* You buy "credits" in Euros with your credit card. To look at a page of search results costs 1 credit, to look at the details of one record costs 5 credits, if I'm remembering correctly. The whole credit concept is new so I'm not sure how it all works. It used to be free to look at search results page and 5 Euros to see the details.

I'll have a look at it. My father and I are going to head down to the registry office in Dublin so I'm looking for a bit more information as a basis to start on.

I'm Irish so I'm home anyway a few times a year, so the trip to Dublin isn't a problem at all (£10 return flights last time)

[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?

[castledangerous]

Not twaddle, my friend, not twaddle at all.

[Ui Meachair]

At the risk of getting caught in the crossfire, here goes.

CIVIL registration of births (and I believe marriages) began in Ireland in the 1860s. Between ~1790 and the 1860s the main source of records are the church records - primarily Catholic and Church of Ireland, but some others. Prior to that there are no Catholic church records (but most likely CoI records) because the Catholic church was, shall we say, discouraged by the ruling authorities at the time.

Please don't hold me to these dates - I was too lazy to go look them up in my sources. And my memory isn't what it used to be - and it used to be pretty bad.

Also, please forgive my Poncan ignorance, but exactly what is "twaddle". Is it anything like haggis?

[MacSpadger]

As I posted earlier, Irish Government registration for all births, marriages and deaths in Ireland began in 1864. Records for non-Catholic marriages began in 1845, but non-Catholic births don't seem to get mentioned until 1864 either. That's what the Irish GRO says, so don't shoot the messenger.

Ui Meacher, where I come from twaddle is usually served deep fried.

[English Bloke]

Destruction of the Public Record Office

For anyone wanting to research ancestors in Ireland, there are a number of myths that can be an obstacle. The one most uncomfortably close to the truth is that all the records were destroyed in 1922. What actually happened was bad enough. The strong-room of the Public Record Office of Ireland, repository of the vast majority of administrative records of the island of Ireland from the 14th century on, was used as an ammunition store by the anti-Treaty side in the civil war. Hit by a shell fired by the pro-Treaty forces, the munitions exploded and destroyed all of the records. Only those few records in the PRO Reading Room at the start of the conflict survived.

From a genealogical point of view, the most significant losses were:

the surviving 19th century census returns,
about two-thirds of pre-1870 Church of Ireland parish registers
all of the surviving wills probated in Ireland.

While the loss of the census returns in particular still casts a long shadow over Irish research, any records not in the PRO in 1922 have survived. These include non-Church of Ireland parish records, civil records of births, marriages and deaths, property records and later censuses. And for much of the material that was lost, there are abstracts, transcripts and fragments of the originals. Indeed, with a little straining to see the bright side, the disaster of 1922 can be said to have simplified research on Irish records, though in much the same way that Cromwell’s visit in 1649 simplified Ireland.

Church records

Before the start of civil registration for all in 1864, church records are virtually the only direct source of family information.

Roman Catholic: The vast majority of the population of Ireland were Roman Catholic, and the single most important source of Irish genealogical information is Roman Catholic records. As a result of many years of microfilming, the National Library of Ireland has copies of virtually all the surviving registers. All are open for public research, with the exception of the records of the diocese of Cashel and Emly, covering parts of counties Tipperary and Limerick, which are closed at the behest of the Archbishop. The only access to these is by paid research via Tipperary Family History Research.

The LDS Family History Library has microfilms of around 40% of the registers, available through the Family History Library network and their CD British Isles Vital Records Index, 2nd Edition has transcripts of 12 parishes, mainly in Co. Roscommon.

In addition, the local heritage centre network has database transcripts of about 85% of the Catholic registers, but these are available only by commissioning research. A very basic A list of the centres can be found at www.irish-roots.net

An overview of the various copies of the records can be found at http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/b...ounties/rcmaps.

Quote above comes from "Irish Genealogy" an Irish Government Website.

Lots of interesting stuff.

I might add, records are sketchy all over the British Isles, not just Ireland. I've had a crack at tracing some of mine and it seems the further back you delve the murkier it gets. Poor record keeping abounds though I don't think it was deliberate, it just wasn't particularly structured. I do think though that if you include that factor it's not nearly so emotive. I think we could probably say that it got better after 1864 in Ireland, because that's when they started to properly collate the information?

or maybe not...

And I apologise. "Twaddle" was perhaps a bit strong. But I don't believe there was an organised plot to keep the Catholics down by not giving them Birth Certificates. The Roman Catholic Church already had an efficient method of recording births, marriages and deaths and the majority of the country was Catholic at the time. I think the earlier introduction of of a State system of registration for Non - Catholics was to bring the rest up to the Standard of efficiency that the RC Church had already achieved... 'appen.

[MacBean]

A genealogist made hand-written records in Ireland before the fire destroyed them, so some are still available. For example, the Church Affiliation Census of 1766 lists many families - though even in that case, not all records have been computerized. There are still boxes of untranscribed Census records. Prior to 1670 - lots o' luck lad! Not much in the way of parish records that old anywhere in Ireland or Scotland.

[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.

[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.