Researching your family history: Civil Registration, Births
Last week in an attempt to find James McCormack’s birth certificate I looked at the church records for marriages in St. Mary, Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, October 1903.
Last week we looked at the death certificate for James McCormack and discovered that there was a discrepancy in his age. His death certificate stated that he was forty years of age in 1916 whereas five years earlier the 1911 census records his age as thirty years, which means that he would have been thirty five at the time of his death.
Last week’s blog showed that Catherine McCormack gave birth to a baby boy, Patrick, on the 31 May 1916. The birth record stated that James, the father, was deceased at the time of his birth. This week we are attempting to find out what happened to James Senior.
Welcome to our family history blog. In week two we looked at the 1911 census for James McCormack and his wife Catherine. This week we will be looking at the births registers trying to find a birth certificate for James their son and if we are lucky any other children they might have had. We start as usual by accessing www.irishgenealogy.ie
Welcome back, last week using the website www.irishgenealogy.ie we looked at how to find a marriage certificate. Our example was the marriage of James McCormack and Catherine Clarke who married in 1903. This week, staying with this couple, we are going to try tracing them on the 1911 census.
No longer faceless or nameless – write the story of your First World War soldier
A long, long alphabetical list of 174,000 Allied soldiers who died on Belgian soil in the First World War; this is the new and emotive exhibit on display in Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street until the end of March 2017.
First steps in genealogyStep 1Where do you start?Start at home with your own family. Check the correct names, dates of birth, marriage and death of your parents and grandparents, and make out a record card for each one. List also the brothers and sisters of each parent or grandparent, as far as you can. This information can be obtained by asking your family members - parents, aunt, uncles, grandparents etc. Your record of these two generations should also include information on places - where they were born, lived, married, worked, died and were buried.Step 2Go to your local Public Library.Check on the origin of your family’s surnames and read some of the recommended basic guides to tracing family history prior to visiting major reference libraries or archival repositories. Check the library catalogue for relevant material in Dublin City Public Libraries.Step 3Verify the information in Step 1 from official sources and family records.Check details on headstones in graveyards, particularly for dates of birth and deaths, but also for any other relevant information. Go to the Dublin City Library and Archive to check civil registration indexes. Go to the General Register Office with the verified details of names, places and dates and get copies of any birth, marriage or death certificates.Step 4Check all information obtained so far.Look especially for details about members of the family not listed in your initial list of parents and grandparents and their generations.List great-grandparents and other relatives as revealed in these documents, noting especially any information on dates and places. This might also be a good time to make use of the many websites that deal with genealogy.Step 5Check Dublin Street Directories and Griffith's Valuation in the Dublin City Library and Archive. The Census Records for 1901 and 1911 in Dublin and the Tithe Applotment Books can also be consulted here. For countrywide records visit The National Archives to verify facts about places and dates discovered so far. If you are outside Dublin, contact your local public library for relevant directories and other information.Make copies of relevant documents or copy down the information as it relates to each person in each place.Step 6Having obtained records from the General Register Office check parish registers, which record baptisms, marriages and funerals. Roman Catholic Parish registers can be consulted on microfilm in the National Library of Ireland.Step 7Check other sources.Check with the Registry of Deeds for wills, property transfers, marriage licences etc.Check newspapers for announcements of births, marriages and deaths, funerals or obituaries.Check school, military and professional records.Step 8Remember that your ancestors may have been born, married or may have died outside of Ireland. Seek the advice of your local librarian if you don't know where to go to next.