R E S E A R C H   G U I D A N C E

Ireland
Research Outline
   

Table of Contents
Introduction
Ireland Search Strategies
Records At The Family History Library
Familysearch™
The Family History Library Catalog
Archives And Libraries
Biography
Cemeteries
Census
Church Directories
Church History
Church Records
     Church Of Ireland Records
     Catholic Records
     Presbyterian Records
     Methodist Records
     Quaker (Society Of Friends
     Jewish Records
     Other Churches
     Locating Church Records
Civil Registration
     General Historical Background
     Information Recorded In Civil Registers
     Locating Civil Registration Records
Court Records
Directories
Emigration And Immigration
Gazetteers
Genealogy
Heraldry
History
Land And Property
Language And Languages
Maps
Military Records
Names, Personal
Naturalization And Citizenship
Newspapers
Nobility
Occupations
Periodicals
Poorhouses, Poor Law, Etc.
Probate Records
Schools
Societies
Taxation
Other Records For Ireland
For Further Reading
Comments And Suggestions

CIVIL REGISTRATIONLook this term up in the glossary.

Civil registration records are government records of births, marriages, and deaths. Because Irish civil registration records are indexed and cover most of the population, they are an important source of genealogical data, particularly of names, dates, and places of births, marriages, and deaths.


General Historical Background

Before civil registration, churches alone kept the records of births, marriages, and deaths in Ireland. On 1 April 1845 the government began registering non-Catholic marriages. On 1 January 1864 the government began registering all Irish births, marriages, and deaths.

For civil registration purposes, Ireland is organized into districts. In each district, registrars record births and deaths, while ministers or other officials who perform the ceremonies register marriages.

Quarterly, the superintendent registrarLook this term up in the glossary. of each district forwards copies of the district's registrations to the appropriate General Register officeLook this term up in the glossary.. The original records remain with the district registrar.

Since 1922 registrations for Northern Ireland have been housed at Belfast, while those for the Republic of Ireland have remained in Dublin. Pre-1922 records for all of Ireland are in Dublin.


Information Recorded in Civil Registers


BirthsLook this term up in the glossary.

Birth registrations typically include the child's name, sex, birth date, and birthplace; the parents' names (including the mother's maiden name) and the father's occupation; and the informant's signature, residence, and qualification (often the relationship to the child being registered).


MarriagesLook this term up in the glossary.

Marriage registrations include the marriage date, place, and denomination (for church marriages); the names of the bride and groom, their ages, occupations, marital statuses, and residences at the time of marriage; the names and occupations of their fathers and often whether their fathers were deceased; and the signatures of the bride, groom, and witnesses. Marriages were usually performed in the bride's parish and were registered by the performing minister.


DivorcesLook this term up in the glossary.

Divorce in Ireland was almost nonexistent. The few divorces that did take place were granted by the English government. For more information on divorce records, see the England Research Outline.


DeathsLook this term up in the glossary.

Death certificates give only the name, occupation, age at death, and marital status of the deceased; duration of the illness; date, place, and cause of death; and signature, qualification, and residence of the informant. A spouse's name is sometimes listed. If a child or unmarried female died, the father's name is often written in the occupation space.

Civil registrations of deaths are of limited genealogical value because they:

  • Do not normally contain parentage or birth information.
  • May be inaccurate (the informant may not have known the information requested).
  • May not contain enough information to distinguish your ancestor from others with the same name.

Nonetheless, a death certificate is usually the only civil record for persons born or married before government registration began in 1864.


Locating Civil Registration Records

Civil registration records are kept at the superintendent registrars' offices in the districts. Duplicates are kept at the General Register offices. The General Register Office for the Republic of Ireland has birth, marriage, and death indexes and corresponding records, including registrations of Irish subjects at sea, abroad, or in the military through 1921 for all of Ireland. The office's post-1921 records cover Republic of Ireland counties only. The address is:

General Register Office
Joyce House
8-11 Lombard Street East
Dublin 2
IRELAND (EIRE)
The General Register Office of Northern Ireland has birth, marriage, and death records, including registrations of Irish at sea, abroad, or in the military from 1922 on for Northern Ireland only. The address is:

General Register Office
Oxford House
49/55 Chichester Street
Belfast BT1 4HL
NORTHERN IRELAND
When requesting a registration certificate by mail from these offices, include:

  • A check or money order for the search fee.
  • The full name and sex of the person sought.
  • The names of the parents, if known (only when requesting a birth record).
  • The approximate date and place of the event.


Indexes to Civil Registration Records

Indexes can help you find a registration entry for your ancestor. Before 1878, registration indexes were arranged alphabetically by year. Since 1878, indexes have remained alphabetical but have been divided by quarter. Most registration indexes list only the name of the individual registered and the district, volume, and page number of that person's registration entry. The death indexes also list the individual's age at death. Republic of Ireland post-1927 birth indexes include the mother's maiden name. In searching for an index entry, knowing the name of the district and at least an approximate year in which the birth, marriage, or death occurred will reduce your search time.

Place-names in the indexes are for districts. In rural areas, many villages and parishes belong to one district. In urban areas, a city may be divided into several districts.

To identify the district in which your ancestor lived, use the following sources:

If you find an index entry, you can use that entry to request a copy of the original record from (1) the General Register Office in Dublin if the event was recorded before 1922 or took place in the Republic of Ireland, or (2) the General Register Office in Belfast if the event took place in or after 1922 in Northern Ireland.

If you cannot find an index reference, consider the following reasons:

  • There are separate supplemental indexes for births and deaths for 1864-1870.
  • Late registrations of births and deaths are indexed separately at the end of each index volume.
  • Surnames are often spelled differently than expected.
  • Surnames with prefixes, such as O'Bryan or McDonnal, may be listed without their prefixes (Bryan, Donnal).
  • Events are filed by the date they were registered, not the date they occurred and may therefore be indexed in a later volume. (For example, a birth on 20 December 1879 which was registered on 6 January 1880 will be listed in the January-March volume of 1880.)
  • Indexes were hand-prepared and may contain errors, such as copying mistakes (for example, the interchange of T and F) and missed entries.
  • Some people are registered under a different name than they used later in life.
  • Some marriages are indexed by the name of only one spouse.
  • A woman's surname in the marriage index is sometimes her surname from a previous marriage and not her maiden surname.
  • Vital information provided by the family (particularly age at death) is often incorrect.
  • People with common names are sometimes difficult to distinguish in the index.
  • Many deaths are registered under the name unknown.
  • Children born before their parents were married may be listed under the mother's maiden name.
  • Some children are simply listed as male or female if they were not named by the time of registration.
  • Some events were not registered, though registration of births, marriages, and deaths was required by law.

If, after considering the above factors, you cannot find a civil birth, marriage, or death certificate for your ancestor, you may want to search church or other records.


Records at the Family History Library

The Family History Library has microfilm copies of the civil registration indexes of births, marriages, and deaths for Ireland and Northern Ireland through 1958 (through 1959 for Northern Ireland). The Library also has microfilm copies of:

The library's copies of civil registration records and indexes for Ireland are listed in the Locality Search of the catalog under IRELAND - CIVIL REGISTRATION. Other civil registration records, such as records of births at sea, are listed in the Locality Search of the catalog under GREAT BRITAIN - CIVIL REGISTRATION.

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