Researching your family history: Church Records

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. To verify his age we would need his birth certificate. To find a birth certificate one would need to know the mother’s maiden name but as only fathers’ names were recorded on Civil Registration Marriage Certificates it could prove difficult to trace his birth certificate.  

I decided to search the church marriage records for James and Catherine in the hope that I might discover his mother’s maiden name. I again accessed www.irishgenealogy.ie and input my search as follows:  James McCormack, Dublin, 1903 (year they were married) and this time I chose church records. 

There were three results. One record matched all the criteria of the Civil Registration Marriage Certificate. I clicked on this record and went to “view church register page containing this record” I have included an extract from the 1903 register of St. Mary, Pro Cathedral, Catholic Church, Dublin.  

I was in luck as the church register records both the fathers and mothers names of the couple getting married. Other information includes addresses of parents and witnesses. This record also informs us that the parents of Catherine are dead.  See 4th entry on page below:

 

Church Register - Marriages - St. Mary, Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. October 1903

  

Next week armed with the mother’s maiden name, Julia Corr and father’s name, James McCormack we can begin to search for the birth certificate of James and find out exactly how old he was when he was killed in 1916.