Brick Walls. Dead Ends

It seems that there are a lot of researchers out there who often mention that they have come to a 'Brick Wall' or 'A Dead End' in their search for their ancestors, especially those researching in Ireland.

The question is "Are you looking in the right/wrong places.

Let me explain.

IRISH ADDRESSES

This is an example on an address I just sent to someone (some details changed for privacy):

The Big House

Arles

Ballickmoyler

Carlow

Ireland

Tel: (Carlow code is 0503 ) followed by the number

The address is confusing in itself if you are not familiar with the Irish postal system. In this case Ballickmoyler & Arles is in the County of Laois and obviously Carlow is in County Carlow. Address's in Ireland are written according to where the letter has to go to get to its final destination. (remember, there are no Postal Codes (Zip Codes) in rural Ireland (only in Dublin). In the case above, Carlow is the main sorting office and is the nearest one to Arles. Ballickmoyler is the nearest sub Post Office to Arles. So all the mail for the area has to go to that office and then on to Arles which is the final delivery address.

WHAT YOU SEE?

Now, the same applies to the information that you see on Birth, Marriage and Death certificates. People may be living in one county, in this case the southern part of Laois and most people would go across the border into the next county i.e Carlow, to register their B,M & D. In fact, it is also quite common for people who travelled outside of Ireland to say that they actually came from that town because no one would have heard of the village, let alone know where that village was. It certainly wouldn't be in any official document that the authorities abroad could relate to. They would only have a list of the major towns of Ireland.

So how can we determine where our folks were born/lived?

MAP's

The first piece of equipment you will need are some good map/s of the county/s in Ireland you are looking in, (in this case the Ordnance Survey of Ireland 'Discovery Series' are the best). I would also equip myself with all the maps that border on to that county as well. Now if you are under the impressions from family sources that your ancestors came from a certain town and after hours/days/months/years of research you come up with 'Zero', it is now time to start widening your search area and this is where your maps will come in useful. You have to pinpoint the County Administration Town of the County, (this is where people have to go to register their Births, Marriages and Deaths etc.

A DAY's WALK

Once you have done your sum's, you may then find out why you cant find who you are looking for in the county that you were told originally because they were living across the border in the next county and their own County Administration Town would have been too far away, (probably a days walking!) to register their Birth's Marriage's and Death's.

PARISHES

Parishes also crossed over into the next county and you might be born in Northern Ireland and registered in a Town in Southern Ireland. A bit extreme I know but that what we are looking at, extremes in research.

POOR LAW UNION (PLU)

Before we had civil registration we had the Poor Law Unions (PLU) and each PLU had an administrative centre usually a market or post town - the area covered by that PLU had a radius of about 10 miles around the town. Now, because our counties are small ten miles to either side of a town can take in parts of three counties. For example Carlow town is close to the Laois border and so it takes in parts of Laois.

The thing is that when people know that their ancestors came from a certain Town or County then they look for information for civil registration districts that they know belong to that county.

TOWNLAND DIRECTORY

The way to see which parts of a county are covered by any of these districts is to go to The IreAtlas townland database and key in the name of the town or county and you will get a return of all the Townlands that are physically part of that county but which belong to the Poor Law Union you looked for - if it's one of the more than one county ones.

CIVIL REGISTRATION

Civil registration was based on the Poor Law Unions and the Townlands in the administrative area of any poor law union, so, if I had a child born in a particular townland went to the wrong district office to have the event registered - they would have to tell them to go to the district that covered that townland.

MOVING TOWNLANDS

While it's true that they probably went to the closest church, and not the main parish church - the closest church may have been a chapel of ease to the parish church - the records for that closest church may be listed in those of the main parish church or there may have been a separate register - there may have been no records kept even! We can only see these separate registers when we go to the parish register films - sometimes parish names listed on the film are mentioned in none of the various indices or listings of remaining parish registers. So, now, I believe that they attended some church in their own parish - but that it may have been a chapel of ease - Also - the boundaries of parishes changed and the Bishops of Dioceses actually moved Townlands from one parish to another from time to time - just to the parish next door really - but it was all administration based on the population and the number of priests he had. One Parish Priest in Limerick had kept notes as to the changes ordered by the bishop - over a 12 year time span (1833-49) the bishop annexed Townlands from one parish to the other and then some of them back again - plus he added or subtracted other Townlands from one parish to two other parishes - changed in 4 parishes altogether. So people who left in 1845 would say they came from this parish - and then those who left from the same family 3 years later would give their parish as another.

LOOK NEXT DOOR

I hope this will help those of you who are about to give up because you have searched every record in the parish where they were born. Try looking over the fence into the parish next door. You never know what you might find.

If anyone wants to know more about civil registration in Ireland then please see:

http://www.from-ireland.net/gene/civilregistration.htm

(I wish to thank Jane Lyons for helping me in compiling the above information).

ARE YOU RESEARCHING IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND & WALES?

Here are a few books you may want to consider having on your book shelf:

1. 'THE OXFORD COMPANION TO LOCAL AND FAMILY HISTORY' by David Hey (A complete guide to uncovering your past). CN3785 1996 Edition.

2. 'THE OXFORD GUIDE TO FAMILY HISTORY' By David Hey ISBN 0-19-869177-7 Published in 1993.

3. 'TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE'. Fifth revised edition by Amanda Bevan ISBN 1 873162 61 8 Reprinted in 1999.

(These books can be purchased from http://www.amazon.com )

There is also a very good magazine called 'Family Tree Magazine' Well worth a look. You can subscribe on line. This magazine specialises in tracing ancestors in England, Wales and Scotland.