How to Order B/M/D Certificates
Contributed by Cindy Wood
Civil registration in Ireland took place in 2
waves. Beginning April 1845, civil registration of non-Catholic marriages
began. On January 1, 1864, civil registration of births and deaths began
and registration of Catholic marriages was added. The General Registers
Office in Dublin maintains country wide indices for the registered births,
deaths and marriages. From 1864 to 1922, these are for all of Ireland, as
well as the 1845-1863 indices for non Catholic marriages. After 1922, they
maintain the indices for only the Republic of Ireland. Records for Antrim,
Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone after 1922 are maintained by Public
Records Office of N. Ireland, located in Belfast. PRONI also has indices
for the 1845-63 non Catholic marriages and the pre 1922 indices for the province
of Ulster. Each county also has a Registry office that maintains copies of
the birth, marriage death registrations commencing in 1864. They do not
have copies of the non Catholic marriage registrations prior to 1864, which are
held in church custody (and may be found in either local church custody or the
custody of the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin).
Prior to 1871, births, deaths and marriages were not registered by
quarter. Noting their references
for the purpose of ordering will involve only the year, volume number and page
number found in the index. After
1871, all events were registered by quarter and it will be necessary to check
each index book for that year by quarter. Any
event occurring in the latter part of the quarter may actually be registered in
the following quarter. References
after 1871 will need to include the year, the quarter, the volume and the page
number. It should be noted that a
portion of all births, deaths and marriages went unregistered. It is estimated that this is in the range of 15% for all.
Cross-checking with church parish records is always recommended.
Birth certificate will contain the
name, sex and date of birth of the person, the name of the parents (including
the maiden name of the mother), the residence of the family, and the name and
address of the informant. Starting in 1904, in the GRO, the index
for births also included the maiden name of the mother. Registration
of a birth was to be done within 6 weeks of the birth, to avoid fines. You
will occasionally find that people "made up" a new birth date for a
birth registration to avoid the payment of fines. Therefore, you may
occasionally find that a person's civil birth registration shows a date of birth
that came after their christening date! .As
well, you may encounter the listing in a birth registration as Male or Female.
In that case, you may want to consider contacting the county registration
office to see if a Christian name for the infant was later added to the
registration book.
Death certificates contain the name
of the deceased, date of death, marital status of the deceased at the time of
their death, age at death, cause of death, and the name and address of the informant and their
relationship to the deceased. It will NOT list where the person was
buried. If the person died in a Workhouse, the certificate is supposed to
list the townland that the person came from, though it very often does not.
Additionally, both the age and marital status of the decedent can be misleading.
In many cases, the age of the decedent is rounded up, or even guessed at, by the
informant. Use the stated age on a death certificate as a guide only
unless you have independent confirmation (a birth certificate or a christening
record) of the year of birth. The most common error on the marital status
is that the informant indicated the person was married, when in fact they may be
widowed. In Dublin, the index for deaths also includes the age of the
deceased person.
Marriage certificates show the names
of the bride and groom as well as their "marital" status at the time
of this marriage (spinster, bachelor, widower, widow). It will also list
their residence at the time of marriage, their occupation if any, names of their
fathers, and the occupation and residence of the fathers, names of the 2
witnesses to the marriage, as well as the priest or clergyman who performed the
service. If the bride has been married previously, the name on the
marriage certificate in almost all circumstances WILL NOT be her maiden name.
As well, if the bride is a widow, the new marriage certificate will be
registered under the surname of her first marriage as opposed to her maiden
name. The entry in the index will also be under her former married name
with possibly a further note of her
maiden name, i.e., Flanagan, Margaret als Powell. It will not be listed in
the index under her maiden name. Though it was not required, many clerks
made note on the marriage certificate if the father of the bride or groom was
deceased at the time of marriage. The marriage certificate also has a spot
for the age of the bride and groom. Unfortunately, until approximately the
start of the 20th century, this generally did not list a chronological age,
rather it would state if the bride or groom were of full age to marry or that
they were a minor, who would than have required a guardian's consent to marry.
Full age for both a bride and groom was 21 years of age. While it is
generally safe to assume a groom with an age listed as full is at least 21 years
old, that is not the case with a bride. Often, a clerk noted the age as
full for a bride if she had merely attained at least 18 years of age.
Responsibility for providing information for the birth and death certificates
lay with someone "present" for the birth or death, or having knowledge
of the event. Most generally this is the mother, father or some other
relative. The responsibility for providing the information for the
marriage certificate was with the church, i.e., the person who performed the
ceremony. As a result, information contained on a marriage certificate is
more often incorrect in significant ways, such as the Christian names of the
fathers of the bride and groom. On occasion, it can be incorrect in
extreme ways, as a friend of mine found when she learned that her name had been
inadvertently placed as the bride's name on her sister's marriage certificate
(in the mid 1990s) and the bride?s name was placed as the witness to the
marriage.
There are other things to consider when using the indices. Surname
spelling did not become standardized until the 20th century. If your
relative had a surname that could be spelled a number of different ways, look
under all variations of the spelling. Even though my family spelled the
name Keas, I've found listings under Keays, Keayes, Keys, Keyes, Kayes and Keyse.
As well, prefixes to surnames were often omitted, so O'Connor became
Connor and then later in the century reversed and once again was O'Connor.
Like surnames, Christian names present problems, in that people may have
been known only by a nickname. Your great grandmother may have been Delia
from the day she was born until the day she died, but if you don't find her
birth certificate with that name, look for her as Bridget. Your
grandfather may have been called Edward, Ted or Ned, but his name on his birth
certificate may very well have been Edmund.
Things to consider in searching for a registration can be influenced by whether
you are searching in the county offices or in the General Registers Office in
Dublin. In Dublin, the certificates are not registered by county, rather
they are registered by Poor Law Union. Poor Law Unions often crossed a
county line, so someone born in Co. Clare could fall into the Limerick Poor Law
Union. In Tipperary, the Poor Law Unions were Borrisokane, Carrick on Suir,
Cashel, Clogheen, Clonmel, Nenagh, Roscrea, Thurles and Tipperary. If you
have a surname that could be considered even remotely common, you should know
the Poor Law Union that your relative?s residence fell in to have even a
chance of locating certificates relevant to your search. That way, if you
know your granny, Bridget Ryan, was born in Newport, you can begin with an
assumption that a birth certificate for Bridget Ryan registered in Rathkeale is
not your granny. If you are searching indices at the local county level,
these are filed under Registrars Districts, a subdivision of the Poor Law Union.
For example, in the county office, certificates that are listed as Nenagh in
Dublin will be filed under the following subdistricts: Nenagh, Newport,
Portroe, Silvermines and Toomyvara. As
well, an index in the local office will cover a number of years as opposed to
just one year.
Costs involved in your search will remain the same, whether you are searching in
the local office or in Dublin. Local offices do not generally set aside
space for researchers and it is advised that you call ahead to arrange research
times at the local office. While you are in the local office, please be
aware that their staff continues to work around you, and you will be asked to
forego searching in a particular book if they need it.
Fees for research
General Search: This is an all day fee of ? 15.24. It allows
unlimited access to all indices in that location. It does not include the
cost of any photocopy. In the county offices, the index for any particular
registration book is found in the back of the registration book. You will
be asked to not look at the actual registration, but rather seek the assistance
of a staff member to obtain a photocopy of the registration.
Photocopies when you are able to supply the
reference codes for their location cost ? 1.90.
If you cannot supply the references, and need staff assistance to locate
the registration, it will cost ?
3.81. If you are conducting your research from the local office,
please make sure to specify that you need only a photocopy of the registration;
otherwise you will be given a hand transcribed copy of the long form certificate
and charged accordingly.
Payment
of Fees
Local offices are able to accept only cash
payments in euros, bank drafts drawn on an Irish bank or international money
orders denominated in euro. They are no longer able to accept personal checks in any
other denomination, including American and Australian dollars or pounds
sterling, nor do they accept credit or debit cards.
The General Registers Office in Dublin is able to
accept credit card payments for actual certificates ordered.
If you are paying in cash, it must be in euros. Bank
drafts drawn on an Irish bank or an international money order denominated in
euros are also permissible. Please
note that the Research Room is only able to accept cash, in euros, not checks,
credit or debit cards. There is a
limit of 5 photocopies per day if you are conducting your research in the
research room due to staff shortages. Therefore,
if you know you are in need of more than 5 photocopies, it is recommended that
you make your request for these photocopies in writing via the post, allowing
you to pay by credit card.
Staff in the General Registers Office ask that if
you are making a written request for photocopies, please group requests for
marriages together, births together and deaths together.
Though they will not refuse to process a request for more than 30
photocopies, they generally prefer that you request no more than 30 in any one
order. Written requests do not
receive expedited services, and processing time is approximately one month from
the date you mail your order.
GRO
Website - applying for a cert
Hours
of Service
Local offices are also open from 9:30 until 4:30
and nearly all close for lunch...