|
Types of surviving records in Ireland include:
Civil Registration
records (Births, Deaths, and Marriages)
Church Records
Census records 1901 & 1911
Wills and Will Abstracts
Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1848-1864 Survey
Tithe Applotment Books 1823-38
Gravestone Inscriptions
Directories
Estate Records
Lewis Topographical Dictionary
Civil Registration
records (Births, Deaths, and Marriages)
Civil
registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1864
except Protestant marriages which began in 1845. Copies
of the birth, marriage or death entries from the
register are available as:
Photocopy - suitable for genealogy purposes as
it is an exact copy of the entry in the register.
Certificate - suitable for legal purposes
such as passport or citizenship application.
To obtain a photocopy or a
certificate a precise reference is required. If you don't have one
Genfindit can search for the reference in the National Index for
you.
National
Index
The National index
is in book format. Currently there is no computerised version so all
searches are checked manually Until 1877 the index is sorted
alphabetically by year. From 1878 it is sorted alphabetically by quarter
of a year at least until 1921. The information in the index we check
shows:
Births - surname, given names, year, quarter, volume, page and registrar's
district.
Marriage - surname, given names, year, quarter, volume, page and
registrar's district.
Death - surname, given name, age at death, year, quarter, volume, page and
registrar's district.
(Superintendent)
Registrar's Districts (also called Poor Law Unions) is the civil vital
place where the event took place. There are 163 districts in Ireland and
are pictured here or a table
showing the county location of all districts is here.
The Registrar General will
not allow anyone to preview the records before ordering copies. Therefore
for example we can't check a parent's name on a birth record to establish
correct identity. So inevitably if there are multiple births of the same
name in the index then several entries may need to be ordered to establish
correct identity if you already know the parents' names.
The Registers holding
the actual records:
The books (registers) in which the records are held are divided into
volumes covering five administration areas. Each volume held a multiple
number of records on each page. Prior to 1878 the volumes numbers
were divided as follows.
| Volumes |
1-5 |
March Quarter |
| Volumes |
6-10 |
June Quarter |
| Volumes |
11-15 |
September Quarter |
| Volumes |
16-20 |
December quarter |
Register volumes cover these five
administration districts. A realignment took place in 1922.
| Volumes
until 1877 |
Volumes
1878-1921 |
General
Coverage |
| 1,6,11,16, |
1 |
Belfast,
Ulster (Northern Ireland) |
| 2,7,12,17 |
2 |
Dublin,
Donegal and mid east |
| 3,8,13,18 |
3 |
Mid
central counties |
| 4,9,14,19 |
4 |
South
east and mid west counties |
| 5,10,15,20 |
5 |
South
west counties |
The records
show:
Births - date and place of birth, given name(s), sex,
father's name and residence, mother's name and maiden name, father's
occupation, name and address of informant, date of registration and
signature of informant. See example here
Marriages - date and place of marriage, if
religious the denomination, both parties given name(s), surnames, age,
marital status, occupation, residence, thie fathers' given names, surnames
and occupations, names of two witnesses. See
example here
Deaths - date and place of death, given
name(s), surname, sex, marital status, age, occupation, cause of death,
name and address of informant, date of registration and signature of
registrar.
The single most important piece of
information found on civil records other than personal is the name of the
townland where the event took place. Townlands are the smallest
division of land in Irealnd it is like and address. There are over
60,000 townlands in Ireland in 1851. You can check for the correct
identity of a townland here.
Church Records
Before civil registration we must rely on church records.
Catholics form the greatest part of the population of Ireland followed by
Church of Ireland (Anglican), Presbyterian then various smaller
denominations.
Some church registers were lost in the great fire in 1922. However most
Catholic registers are still available, as are Church of Ireland,
Presbyterian and other denomination records. Commencement dates of baptism, marriage and burial
registers vary from parish to parish. Catholic
parishes often have different boundaries and names than their Protestant counterparts.
There is no publicly available conversion table on the internet to convert
an Irish civil parish name to a Catholic parish name. Genfindit uses an Irish Recordfinder
computer program to identify correct parish names and ascertain
availability of records. Alternatively you can use Lewis Topographical
Dictionary, available at many libraries, which gives an account of all
civil parishes and also specifies the corresponding Catholic parish.
To establish the availability and
commencement date of registers for a particular religious parish there are
several publications you can consult such as Ryan's Irish Records, a Guide
to Irish Parish Registers by Brian Mitchell or particularly useful
for Catholic records try Tracing your Irish Ancestors by John Grenham.
Genfindit can assist also. See here.
Occasionally there are gaps in the registers so this will need to be
checked also.
Catholic records invariably contain the
following:
Baptisms - date, child's name, father's name, mother's maiden name, names
of sponsors, usually residence of the parents.
Marriages - date names of persons
marrying, names of witnesses. Residences, ages, occupations and father's
names might also be shown.
Most Catholic registers have been
filmed and are held by the National Library of Ireland in Dublin . National Archives of Ireland,
Representative Church Body Library
and PRONI (Public Record Office of Northern Ireland)
also have large collections of church records. Genfindit
can arrange searches here the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormans) has
also microfilmed the records of many parishes. Their website can be found here or check the the Family
History Library Catalog here
|
