Civil registration in Ireland: birth records

Irish birth records. Irish birth certificates online. General Register Office of Ireland. Birth records online.

In Ireland birth records date from 1864, when the Irish civil registration system was introduced. Until this time, a child's arrival was recorded only by baptism (or christening, according to religious denomination).

Although it became compulsory to register all Irish births with a local registrar, some Irish births were not recorded, particularly in the early years.

Some estimates put non-registration as high as 15% in some of the vast rural areas of the west where it might have meant a day's trek (or more) for a new parent to reach a registration office. In other areas, estimates of non-compliance are usually set at 10% for the first fifteen years or so.

Toolkit Top Tip

If you're manually searching the indexes of Ireland's birth records and cannot find an entry for your ancestor, be sure to check each volume's Late Registrations pages.

You'll find them at the back of the volume.

But even by the 1880s, the need to register a birth might have been overlooked. This happened in my own family when my great-uncle William Santry was born in 1882. He simply doesn't appear in the General Registry Office's centralised birth indexes nor in the original registers.

On joining the Post Office (then part of the British Civil Service) aged 20, he had to provide a baptism certificate and school references as substitutes for a birth certificate.

I've no reason to believe this was an intentional 'oversight' by my great-grandparents because they registered all seven of their other children. Interestingly, though, the date recorded on their son Timothy's birth certificate is not the date he celebrated his birthday (see below). His parents may have declared a later birth date in order to avoid a late registration fine.

These examples show that, in Ireland, birth records are not necessarily complete and accurate, even if they do survive in their entirety!

Where to start?

The first stop for Ireland's birth records is likely to be the civil registration indexes. These are compiled by GRO in Roscommon and by GRONI in Belfast.

Until recently, they were available only in the research rooms of those organisations. Family History Centers, run by the Mormons, also had an incomplete set available on microfilm.

Recently, an increasing number of Irish genealogy sites have begun to offer transcripts of Irish birth records online. Some are free. Some are complete. Some are neither.

Birth registers are unlikely to be an early port of call for most researchers unless they have no regular online access.

Ireland: birth records – Indices

Online: The LDS Church (Mormons) offers the Irish Civil Registration Indexes Collection containing free and searchable access to the civil registration indexes of Ireland. Birth records from 1864 to 1921 cover all 32 counties of Ireland. Birth records from 1922 to 1958 cover only the 26 counties of the Republic.

Click for a larger view.

The site is a good starting point for many Irish genealogy researchers but you need to remember that it contains only the indexes, not the registers. The latter contain parents' names and mother's maiden name, home address, occupation of father, and exact date of birth. In contrast, the indexes don't give much away!

All they will tell you is the registration district and year (and, from 1878 to 1902 inclusive, the quarter) in which the birth was registered, the first name and surname of the child, and a reference made up of Volume and Page numbers. See the image to the left, which shows part of a page from the original index books.

If you wanted to obtain a birth certificate for Ellen Pembroke, for example, you would need to quote this in your application: Ellen Pembroke, 1866, Tralee 20/627.

Ellen's birth certificate copy, when it arrived, would contain all the details from the register.

Offline: For those without regular Internet access, or for those looking for Northern Ireland birth records since 1922, the index books can be searched by visiting GRO in Dublin or GRONI in Belfast. Family History Centers run by the Mormons have microfilm copies of the indexes.

Desperately seeking ...?

Some people will tell you not to bother looking in the indices until you know more than just a name and an approximate date.

My own view is that it depends on the surname. If it's unusual, you have a good chance of finding your ancestor even if you know relatively little. You simply search the indexes/IGI for the most likely years of birth until you find the correct name. Obviously, the narrower the period you are searching, the better.

While the IGI and Indices are useful starter resources, they have limitations. Here are three examples:

Seeking Gertrude

I wanted to find a Gertrude Santry, born pre-1890, probably in co. Cork. I knew nothing else about her, not even her parents' names. I searched the IGI. No trace. Why? Because the IGI is nowhere near complete.

So I tried the civil registration index and there she was, bold as brass, registered in Clonakilty, co Cork, in Quarter 2, 1888. By looking through the indexes I could be 99% confident this was the correct entry because there were no other babies registered 1880-1899 with the same name anywhere in Ireland. (Birth records would not, of course, include an unregistered Gertrude Santry. It's always worth bearing in mind the relatively high level of non-registrations in the 19th century.)

Seeking Tim

I wanted to find my grandfather, Timothy Santry, born 1874-1878. I knew he had been born near Clonakilty and I knew his mother's maiden name was O'Driscoll.

I searched IGI. Given the unusual surname, I was surprised to find two entries - one for 1875 and another for 1878. Neither mentioned a location other than co. Cork. But one, the 1878 entry, showed the mother was Ellen O'Driscoll. I needed to verify this information (I recommend you always verify IGI data through a second source). Using the 1878 year, I found my grandfather's birth registration in the indexes in Quarter 1, 1878. I was then able to obtain his birth certificate which gave me the all-important precise townland address where my ancestors lived.

Seeking John

I was looking for John Doyle, born about 1872 in co. Wexford, according to the 1901 census. I knew his father was Patrick.

IGI threw up over 40 John Doyles born in the two years either side of 1872! Even when restricted to those with a father called Patrick, I had a choice of ten.

When I turned to the indices, I soon lost count of how many John Doyles were registered in Wexford in those years. The indices do not show parents' names so I could not narrow down the choice.

Clearly I was going to need further information about John Doyle before I would find his birth record. A location would most likely solve the problem as I could then narrow down the choice by the nearest registration district, or even search the registers at the local registry. His mother's name might be useful for narrowing down the options on IGI but otherwise would probably not help.

Computerised indexes containing Northern Ireland birth records since 1864 can be searched at GRONI.
Indexes of Irish births that took place anywhere in Ireland from 1864 to 1921 inclusive, and all events that took place in the Irish Free State/Republic since 1922, can be searched manually at GRO's Dublin research room.
The LDS (Mormon church) has microfilmed copies of all indexes (including Northern Ireland birth records) up to 1958.

For more details of how the indexes are arranged, and how to use them to obtain copies of Irish birth certificates, see this site's Irish civil registration page

Ireland: birth records – Registers

The information recorded in the birth registers is exactly the same as that recorded on Irish birth certificates. Find out more further down the page.

Copies of the actual registers of birth are not usually available for public inspection except, for reasons that I've yet to understand, on microfilm through LDS Family History Centers (see link in Find Out More section below). The years available are:

January 1864 to March 1881 inclusive, for the entire island.
1900 to 1913 inclusive, for the entire island.
1930 to 1955 inclusive for Republic of Ireland.
1922 to 1959 for Northern Ireland.

In some County Registration Offices in Ireland, birth records/registers can be viewed by the public by appointment (and payment of a fee) only. Waiting lists may be up to a year long.

Ireland: birth records – Online databases

The LDS Family Search pilot site has been described above (under Indices) and is the best place to start looking for Ireland's birth records.
The International Genealogical Index (IGI), also from the LDS, is a second placed option. It contains countless Irish birth records. Most of these have been transcribed from Irish parish registers but many are from Ireland's civil registration records. An example of an IGI entry is below.
The IGI is free to access and is worth an early viewing. Bear in mind that the IGI, while huge, contains only a proportion of Ireland's birth records (and the same is true of Irish baptism records). Don't be surprised if your ancestors do not show up.
Also, and very importantly, be sure to verify any IGI-obtained data that you wish to rely on. Transcribers are only human!
On an all-island level, the only other free site I know of is IrelandGenWeb which has transcribed the entire birth index for 1864.
Many local groups have been busy transcribing birth records and placing them online free of charge in recent years, so work your favourite search engine before you turn to any sites that charge.
The best-known pay-per-view site is run by the Irish Family History Foundation. It has millions of birth records, some transcribed from church registers, some from civil registration registers, so you may find what you are looking for. But take care. Search fields are limited for some counties so you may end up with a long list of identical names and no way of judging which one is your ancestor unless you pay €5 for each record's full transcript.
Of course, the same can happen when you look through the indices and buy copy certificates, so my criticism has to be viewed in that context.
Don't forget that, although very large, this database does not hold all Ireland's birth records. See its home page to find out which counties it covers.
A relative newcomer is www.irishgenealogy.ie. It doesn't hold civil registration records but church records, but is worth checking out.

Irish birth certificates

All Irish birth certificates contain the following information:

Date of birth

Place of birth (townland or urban street name/house number

Name of child (sometimes blank or 'male' or 'female' if not yet decided

Sex of child

Father's name and address (townland or street name/house number)

Mother's name and maiden name

Father's occupation

Name, address and 'qualification' (relationship) of informant.

Date registered

Name of registrar.

Superintendent Registrar's District

County

Irish birth certificates are especially helpful to your family history research because they give the all-important, and often elusive, townland where the child was born. They also give the birth names of both parents. With both surnames, finding a record of their marriage becomes a lot easier.

The date of birth should be treated with some caution. The longer the period between the birth and the date of registration, the more likelihood the date of birth is incorrect. But some registrations that appear to have been recorded promptly after the birth may also be incorrect; families were fined if they recorded the birth outside set time limits so would register a false date of birth to avoid hefty penalties.

The documents below relate to my grandad, born in 1878 in Clonakilty, co Cork. Just click on the thumbnails for a larger view.

My grandfather's birth was registered on 20 February by his father who stated that his first child's arrival date was 13 February. While that information may be correct, I know that my grandad always celebrated his birthday on 20 January, so clearly someone was misinformed along the way!

This is my grandfather's birth record on IGI.

While the details correspond with those on the birth certificate above, some critical information has been omitted.

In particular, the all-important place of birth. This is despite this record having been transcribed from the birth register where it is clearly stated.

Where next?