Ireland

You can now order birth, marriage and death certificates from Ireland online. These are only the records that can be ordered online not all the available civil registration records. There are a few catches to the process.

Birth Certificates

You can get a certificate for a birth from January 1864 to December 1921 in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and from January 1922 in the Republic of Ireland.

The mandatory information to apply for a birth certificate is: first and last name of the child and mother’s first and maiden name.

Other information that is asked for but not mandatory are: date of birth which you can fill in completely or tick a small box that says it is an approximation; gender and father’s first and last name.

Requiring the maiden name of the mother to get a birth certificate is going to be restrictive for the majority of genealogists.

Marriage Certificates

You can get a marriage certificate that was registered in the Republic of Ireland from 1922 to the present. But you can only get marriages registered in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from January 1920 to December 1921.

The mandatory information to apply for a marriage certificate is: first and last name of both the husband and wife and place of marriage. The place of marriage could be a church, village, town or registration district.

As when applying for a birth certificate you can add a date of marriage but tick the box to say it is an approximation.

Death Certificates

You can get a death certificate registered in the Republic of Ireland from 1924 to the present.

Mandatory information to acquire a death certificate is: first and last name of deceased and place of death.

Other information that is asked for but not required is: former residence of the deceased; age of the deceased and the date of death, where again they allow for an approximation.

You can also apply for Still-birth and Adoption certificates. Acceptance of the Terms & Conditions is a requirement for all orders.

The cost of the certificates is more expensive than requesting them by mail. Each certificate and each additional certificate of the same event costs €8.00. There is a search fee of €2.00 and postage which is €1.00 within Ireland and €2.00 to the rest of the world. So when ordering from Canada this would add up to €12.00 and with the current rate of exchange would equal about $15.75 Canadian.

You can pay for this online with a MasterCard, Visa or Laser credit card through their secure site.

If you have problems then you will have to contact the General Register Office by telephone.

The General Register Office says that the order will be shipped in five working days.

There is a Question and Answer section which can be helpful. Reading the Terms and Conditions also provides some more information.

It is a shame that they decided to severely restrict the years available for marriage and death certificates as well as making the mother’s maiden name mandatory for a birth certificate and both spouses’ names mandatory for marriage certificates. This makes it difficult for the average genealogist as they do not always know the mother’s maiden name for a birth or a spouse’s name for a marriage.

Remember that you can still check the Irish Civil Registration Indexes for births (1864-1958), marriages (non Catholic marriages from 1845, all marriages 1864-1958) and deaths (1864-1958) at Family Search.

©2010 – Blair Archival Research

Anyone who does research of any kind knows how important maps are to the process. Ordnance Survey Ireland has put historic maps online and they are searchable for free. The website says “Between 1829 and 1842 Ordnance Survey Ireland completed the first ever large-scale survey of an entire country”.

There are three series currently online:

6 inch mapping series (1:10,560) colour 1837-1842
6 inch mapping series (1:10,560) greyscale 1837-1842
25 inch mapping series (1:2,500) greyscale 1888-1913

On the first page you can choose to either browse the maps or look at Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary which is in PDF format. This gives you the location and a brief history of towns and townlands in Ireland.

When you first go into browse the maps you get a full image of Ireland. If you click on the province or area of interest it will get bigger.

On the right hand side there is a menu. If you click the mouse on pan you will have the ability to move the image around. Search will help you find a specific place. The easiest way is to click on search, chose by county, pick your county name and then enter a town, locality, townland or historic parish name. You have several to choose from in the drop down menus.

There is also choice of maps. A hybrid map which shows a satellite map with the buildings and roads filled in and then overlaid on top. Ortho 2005, 2000 and 1995 are satellite maps created in those years. A historic map which is in colour and a historic map in black and white are the last two options. You also have the ability to do a modern map overlay which places a historic map over the modern image.

Historic Layers allows you to choose different features and to apply them to the map. The features are: environmental such as brewery, gas works and quarry; or genealogical such as churches, burial grounds or a military barracks. These only apply to the historic 6 and 25 inch maps.

The historic layers can be difficult to see on the maps. The writing is in burgundy. This makes it tricky to see if the map is zoomed out or if looking at a city map. They are easier to read if you use the black and white historic map. Try turning on all the choices and see what can be found in your place of interest. This will give you a good idea of what the area was like.

If you click on reset view it takes you back to the full image of Ireland. You also have the option to purchase hardcopy maps.

So go in and have a look as you never know what you may find.

©2010 – Blair Archival Research

Anyone who does Irish research ought to examine Hayes Manuscripts. These books are the result of a massive indexing project. Richard J. Hayes was the National Library Director who started the project in 1941.

Hayes wanted the library to catalogue all the data relating to Ireland or the Irish for all periods around the world. The final project was called “Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilisation”. It was completed in 1965 and there was a supplement in 1975. According to the National Library of Ireland’s website this resulted in “23 substantial volumes, containing over 17,000 pages of records.”

To use these indexes you had to go to a national, university or very large library. In the Toronto area I know there is a copy at Robart’s Library in the University of Toronto.

The earliest record in these indexes is 1785 and the records cover about 200 years. The digitization project started in late 2007 and it is now available online for free.

What exactly can you find in Sources? According to the National Library of Ireland’s website it is the following:

“All of the National Library’s manuscripts catalogued up to the 1980s; Irish manuscripts held in other libraries and archives in Ireland and worldwide, listed between the 1940s and the 1970s; articles, reviews and other content that appeared in over 150 Irish periodicals up to 1969.” There is also a link to download a list of the journals that are included in the collection.

If you find an article you would like a copy of you can order it through the library’s Copying Services. You can contact the Reprographics Department to find out the cost of the copying.

©2010 – Blair Archival Research