Ireland started collecting vital records information in the spring of 1845 for non-Catholic weddings. On 1 Jan 1864 all officials performing marriages were to submit a civil marriage registration after the ceremony to the registrar in their area. On that same day all births and deaths were also to be recorded with the registrar throughout Ireland.
Tardiness could result in heavy fines. Many dates of birth on these records occurred after the child was baptized. This was one way to avoid the late fee; just lie and make the baby young enough to be born within the required filing period. Compliance was not 100% immediately and estimates vary as to how many events went unreported in the years immediately following 1863.
Duplicate registrar copies were sent to Dublin and indexed to a larger superintendent registrar district. Through 1877 they were yearly and then starting in 1878 organized by quarter; Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep and Oct-Dec.
Until recently, the average researcher outside Ireland could utilize indexes for these important records at various places such as Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org or irishgenealogy.ie. Now the actual scanned images of the registrations for births 100 years old and older, marriages 75 years old and older and deaths 50 years old and older, are becoming available atwww.irishgenealogy.ie
There are a few years still waiting to be posted online but so far: births 1864-1915, marriages 1882-1940 and deaths 1891 to 1965 are up and viewable. The images are linked to the previously searchable indexes at the website, only now there is an image button to press and the full page scan will load on your screen. These images are free to view and free to download to your own devices.
Many years ago(before Ancestry) I was able to utilize the microfilm indexes of these records that are still available at my local family history center. They hold marriages from 1845-1863(non-Catholic only),1864-1921 for all marriages before partition of Ireland into the Free State(now the Republic) and Northern Ireland. The death indexes are from 1864-1921 and the births are from 1864-1881. Catholic marriages were exempt from registration until 1 Jan 1864.
I searched for my great-grandparents’ marriages in Counties Cork and Tyrone. It was a challenge because there were a LOT of Buckley and O’Riordan and O’Callaghan individuals marrying in County Cork. I had to return months later and try again once I learned that the surname prefix might be dropped. Looking again I quickly found an 1894 Cork Superintendent Registrar District(SDR) marriage between John Riordan and Nora Buckley. I also found an 1885 Fermoy SDR marriage between Denis Buckley and Margaret Callaghan.
The index citations look a bit different depending if they were created from the microfilm which references the paper registrar books or the digitized system. If you can’t find some event it is a good idea to check the microfilm copies, if available, to be certain the event went unrecorded or to try and determine where and when the event was recorded. With the microfilm you are looking for couples where they have matching citations. This means they are recorded on the same page among three or four couples. There is a chance with especially common names a pair may be indexed on the same page but did not marry one another. The digitized version do list the contracting parties as a pair.
MICROFILM INDEX
General Register of Marriages in Ireland Index, Denis Buckley and Margaret Callaghan, registered first quarter of 1885 at Fermoy, Co. Cork, Volume 4, Page 529.
DIGITIZED INDEX
Party 1 Name: DENIS BUCKLEY
Party 2 Name: MARGARET CALLAGHAN
Date of Event: 03 February 1885
Group Registration ID: 2313722
SR District/Reg Area: Fermoy
MICROFILM INDEX
General Register of Marriages in Ireland Index, John Riordan and Nora Buckley, registered in the first quarter of 1894 at Cork, Co. Cork, Volume 5, Page 117.
DIGITIZED INDEX
Party 1 Name: JOHN RIORDAN
Party 2 Name: NORA BUCKLEY
Date of Event: 02 February 1894
Group Registration ID: 2138088
SR District/Reg Area: Cork
MICROFILM INDEX
1888 Irish Marriages Index
1st Quarter 1888
index page 24 Catherine M’Ginn, Clogher, Volume 3 Page 105
index page 25 John M’Guigan, Clogher, Volume 3, Page 105
DIGITIZED INDEX
Party 1 Name: JOHN MCGUIGAN
Party 2 Name: CATHERINE MCGINN
Date of Event: 14 February 1888
Group Registration ID: 2450654
SR District/Reg Area: Clogher
The next step was to use the citations listed on the index and write to the Registrar General in Dublin and get xerox copies of the marriage registrations. These records were very helpful. The 1885 certificate detailed the names of the fathers for both bride and groom. (Mother’s names were never listed on the Irish civil marriage record.) This helped to narrow a window for when a person might have died. The marriage record listed that the father of the groom was also named Denis Buckley and deceased. The bride’s father was named Maurice Callaghan and living. Here, the groom Denis Buckley was born in 1859 and had a younger brother Patrick born 1861. They were two of four sons born to Denis Buckley and Kate Cahill between 1856-1861. Therefore, I know that Denis Buckley was alive at the time of his son Patrick’s conception in 1860 but had died sometime before 3 February 1885. The death indexes would need to be searched from 1864-1885. If he died in that period, a death registration might be found. If he had died between 1860-1863, then other records such as a headstone, a burial register or a probate need to be examined.
I am still trying to find Denis Sr. and Kate Buckley’s death details. The Callaghans are a different story. Maurice Callaghan the father of the bride was found in the death index in the second quarter of 1885. Ordering the death record from Dublin was simple and not too expensive for a xerox copy. The record showed that he was married at the time of his death from pneumonia on 6 May 1885. He was 70 years-old.
Moving from the now known fact that his wife Mary Mahoney Callaghan was a widow, I tried to find her death record between 6 May 1885 and some future date.
The 1901 Irish Census record for the Callaghan farm at Knopogge showed their son Maurice heading a household with his wife Margaret and two sons Maurice, 2 and Daniel. (You would never know based on the closeness in age of these boys born on 22 Oct 1898 and 28 Dec 1900 respectively, but further research would reveal a middle son, John, born on All Saints Day 1899 who died at 3 weeks of age.) There is no sign of Mary Mahoney Callaghan. I assumed that she therefore died between 6 May 1885 and 31 Mar 1901, the census day.
I tried numerous times with the microfilm indexes of deaths and later with the online indexes as listed above but failed to find the widow of Maurice Callaghan. I broadened my search to include the other SRDs that border Fermoy; Cork and Mallow.
Earlier this month I excitedly started searching the still numerous and less likely candidates I had not ordered e-mail certificates for from Roscommon where one currently gets copies of the registrations. I continued to fail, fail fail.
Finally, I decided that perhaps Mary Mahoney Callaghan had survived the 1901 Census and was living with another family member or place. She and her husband had nine children between 1850-1862; sons in 1850, 51, 53 and twin sons in 54 and daughters in 57, 58, 59 and 1862. There were no civil birth records, so I surmised that Mary Mahony Callaghan was probably about 42 when she had her last baby in 1862. This would give her a birth year around 1820.
Searching and searching the various ways to spell the surname: Callaghan, O’Callaghan, Callahan and finally Ocallaghan, I found her.
On 5 Mar 1904 at Knopogue(sic), Mary O’Callaghan, female, widow, 84 years at her last birthday, widow of Maurice O’Callaghan, farmer, senile decay(no med attend.), Maurice O’Callaghan, son, present at death, Knopogue.
It was great to finally learn what had become of this ancestor. I have not figured out why I have not found her in the 1901 Irish Census. This is a hobby where as the puzzle is solved it manages to ask new questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment