These are the main building blocks for your family history, especially at the beginning of your research.
Sometimes these are referred to as birth, marriage and death certificates which is partly true. When you ask for a certificate it is created from the information stored in the registers held by the registry offices.
For the purposes of genealogy it is not necessary to buy certificates unless you really want to have one for each event and you don't care about the cost. All you really need is the information held in the registers.
If you are not able to visit The General Registry Office yourself to research these, go to:
www.familyulster.com/BMD_Northern_Ireland_Births_Marriages_Deaths_Certificates.aspx
Here are the appropriate dates that relate to civil registration. Theoretically you should be able to trace your family back to these dates using only birth, marriage and death records at The General Registry Office:
England and Wales
Birth, marriage and death registration began in 1837
Scotland
Birth, marriage and death registration began in 1855
Ireland
Isn't it just Ireland that has to be different?
Birth and death registration began in 1864.
Registration of marriages began in 1845 but only for non Roman Catholic marriages. This includes any other denomination, and those marriages carried out in a registry office.
It was the responsibility of the clergyman to register the marriages and the Roman Catholic Church opted out until 1864. From then on all marriages should be registered.
Nothing is ever simple in genealogy and you will not find some birth, marriage and death records in civil registration since not all of the events were registered.
Why not?
Sometimes you will never know why an event was not registered, but here are some things to consider if you cannot find an event in Northern Ireland:
- Did the event take place and/or be registered in the Irish Republic, England, Wales or Scotland?
- Did the family forget to register a birth or death?
- Was the family too busy or too far from a registry office to make the trip?
- Did a clergyman forget to register a marriage?
- Did a clergyman decide not to register a marriage as it was mixed religion or the couple had children prior to the marriage?
What will you get in the records?
Birth record
a typical birth record in civil registration in Ireland usually gives:
- Place of registration
- Date and place of birth
- Name or names of the child (first and any middle names)
- Sex of child
- Name and residence of father
- Name and maiden name of mother
- Occupation of father
- Name of person who registered the birth
- Date of registration
Marriage record
a typical marriage record in civil registration in Ireland usually gives:
- Place of marriage
- Date of marriage
- Names of the bride and groom
- Ages of the couple (or it may simply state "Full age" meaning over 21)
- Marital status
- Occupations
- Addresses at the time of marriage
- Names of the fathers of the couple
- Occupations of the fathers
- Signatures of the bride, groom and two witnesses
Death record
a typical death record in civil registration in Ireland usually gives:
- Date of death
- Place of death
- Name of the deceased
- Address of the deceased
- Sex of the deceased
- Marital status
- Age at the time of death
- Cause of death
- Name of the person who registered the death
- date of registration
Where can you find information online?
1/ A good place to start is the website of the Church of Latter day Saints (Mormon) found at www.familysearch.org
Click the link below to take you directly to the indexes for civil registration as held by The General Registry Office in Ireland.
Please note that this index includes all of Ireland up to 1921. After partition in 1922 this only applies to The Republic of Ireland. Indexes for Northern Ireland from 1922 are not found here.
www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1408347
2/ The same indexes can be found also on www.ancestry.com or www.ancestry.co.uk which have a better system for linking up both parties in a marriage.
3/ The Northern Ireland database held by Emerald Ancestors provides a large number of birth, marriage and death records from civil registration. It is particularly useful for marriages from 1845 - 1921. Find them at www.emeraldancestors.com
Family Ulster will make a search for you even if you are unsure of the exact information. Contact us at www.familyulster.com
