Ireland Birth Records

[trish1]

I have looked at the links provided by lesley (many thanks) & have a query about GRO Ireland

I am searching for a friend for 2 girls born to the same family in (we think) Dublin c. 1867 and c. 1876 They came to Australia c. 1885-1895 but we have not found any immigration records. Lesley's link says Gro has Births registered in the island of Ireland between 1st January, 1864 and 31 December, 1921 inclusive,... The date of birth/location that I have comes from Australian marriage/death certificates.

Some years ago (pre online data days) an Irish consultant was paid quite a large amount - said he searched 5 years either side of the estimated birth dates and could not find the records. I'm wondering if it is worthwhile applying for a certificate.

The obvious would be to research the births at the records office - but difficult from Australia. My reading of the online order options indicates I can get a 5 year search & if nothing is found it will cost 2 pounds (rather cheaper than the early option)

Has anyone used the online purchase to get a search done? I've done very little Irish research & have little idea as to what else to do.

Trish

[nelmit]

Hi Trish,

I have never used GRO Ireland service except to make general enquiries and I am still waiting for replies. Saying that I'm sure if you have a specific search then it will be different.

Have you ever tried searching the IGI for the girl born 1867 as there are many Irish records around that era online.

Do you want to give their names and perhaps somebody can come up with something?

Regards,
Annette

[Elwyn 1]

Statutory birth registration started in Ireland in 1864 but for the first few years many births were not registered at all. I have seen a figure of 5 – 10% mentioned. (Your only other option then is to search church records for a baptism if you know the religion and parish). Secondly, a lot of early births were registered without a Christian name. That may seem strange to us today but if they hadn’t decided on a name, the birth was registered anyway. You’ll find a lot of early births shown as just “male child” or “female child”. These are not necessarily infant deaths, though some will be. (Stillbirths weren’t registered at all then). They were often healthy children who survived but no name had been agreed by the date the birth was registered. So search under the surname only, with the year, in case your child is one of those.

The LDS Beta pilot site is probably the best to search for statutory Irish BDM events. It has better filters than the new Beta site:

http://search.labs.familysearch.org/rec ... %3A1408347

Copies of many parish records are held at the National Library in Dublin for the Republic of Ireland and PRONI Belfast for what is now Northern Ireland. The records themselves are not on line and you need to get someone to search them for you, or you may be able to order copies of the microfilms in to your nearest LDS library.

www.nli.ie/

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/research_ ... ndexes.htm

There are on line sites which have some Irish parish records but there is no comprehensive site with them all. Some parishes and some denominations declined to let their records be copied and where they did agree many records have yet to be digitized. That leaves the Nat Library and PRONI as the best bet for comprehensive searches of parish records. Where the records are still kept by the church, their catalogues will say "in local custody." You need to contact the church directly for access to those.

In my opinion if you paid a professional researcher to look for the birth and it couldn’t be found, then you are probably throwing good money after bad for a further search. But you never know.

[trish1]

Annette

Thank you for your response - I didn't give names - mainly because they are not my folks & I wasn't sure what their family wanted me to do. I have checked the IGI and the new LDS search without success - but am sure others could have sources I miss - I tend to put Ireland in the "too hard" basket

Elwyn - thank you for your insights and links - in particular the information re births not being registered - this was especially relevant to the previous results from the researcher. I do know the family were RC - but the only indication of birth place is Dublin, Ireland - I assume there are many parishes in Dublin. I don't have alot of information on the younger sister - but being born c. 1875 there may be a higher possibility that her birth was registered. Thank you for the LDS direct link - the names are common with a multitude of variants (and their death records have minor variations in relation to parent names) - but in the Dublin area are returning a list not too long to perhaps try for a search - if the younger one was not part of the previous research.

much appreciate the suggestions

Trish

[rjpaton]

Trish

I have had reasonable results at this website - http://www.rootsireland.ie/ . They seem to be the main game for Ireland records these days outside of Family Search (IGI). Have you tried this one? At the time I found the FamilySearch pilot site got some results & this site had some others for the things I was looking for. So a combination of the 2 is best.

Regards
Rob

[littlealison]

Hello Trish.
I recently sent for a birth certificate for my grandfather's brother Samuel Little, born in Dublin.
I found various Samuels online but I wasn't sure where he fitted in, so I emailed the Irish GRO to see what they dould do, and they said to ask for 1871- 8 was ok. So I sent, and got the certificate, from 1882!
So they must have looked further than I asked for.
I'm very glad they did, as it means both my father and my uncle were wrong in when they thought he was born!
I gave them all the details I had, as an extra sheet with the form. Easy to pay for with my credit card - the second time I have sent, and found it worth it.
Alison

[trish1]

Many thanks to Rob and Alison for their posts - I have a few real life issues at the minute so not posting very often. Do appreciate the suggestions - and thanks Alison for your experience - I'll try for the younger lass as I don't think she was part of the earlier search - but I probably should get her marriage certificate first to make sure she said she was born in Dublin - I only have the certificate for her sister.

Trish

[littlealison]

Hi - me again.
I am not happy with the latest from the Ireland GRO.
I sent for another certificate based on a record on the new FamilySearch site, for Grace Little, who is on two of their sites as born in 1908, died 1914 in Dublin..........and have received a letter from Ireland today to say it cannot be found.
(They haven't charged me.)
Actually I am not sure who to be unhappy with! Either the FS site is wrong - and I found it on two different searches, on the older RecordSearch as well - or they have lost it at the Irish end, which doesn't look efficient for either organisation.

It is also possible that she died in Glasgow, although definitely born in Dublin, and I have not been able to find any record of this.
(This is info from a relative in Canada.)
Any kind person willing to have a look in Glasgow for the same date? - Alison.

[trish1]

Hello Alison

I haven't been on SP very much lately, logged in today & find your message. I've only recently got the details of my younger miss from her marriage certificate & about to send the details to GRO - from the marriage she was born in Kings county (now Offaly I think) so as well I didn't assume Dublin. I don't see her on family search at all, so wondering if she was registered.

So I cross my fingers that she can be found.

A search on SP finds a 9 year old Grace Davidson little who died in paisley 1914

Trish

[littlealison]

Trish1, thanks very much for the possible record. I'll put it to my Canadian relatives....it does fit with one record of the family not being at the Glasgow address we know of by 1914.
They may have been in Paisley - Alison