Genealogy Record Keeping

1. Genealogy Record Keeping An introduction to parish registers, locations finders and sources

2. Parish Registers • Dates for genealogy research • Originated in England in 1538 through an order issued by Thomas Cromwell requiring ‘every parson vicar or curate’ to maintain a record or ‘every weddyngchristenyng and buryeng’ occurring within his each parson, vicar or curates’ parish.

3. Church reform • Parish registers started as a process of church reform, and dealt with the church of England as they had broken away from Rome. • Significant impact for the lives of ordinary people where legislature had largely dealt with state matters • Interest of the state in the affairs of the lives of ordinary people

4. Motive for the registers • ‘Avancement of the trewehonor of almighty God, encrease of vertu and discharge of the kyngesmajestie….@ • Newly imposed authority of newly established church • Marks the transition of England from its medieval state to a modern one • Resulted in a new Anglican Church

5. Early registers survival • Fewer than a 1000 registers survive, largely as as transcripts created in the 17th century rather than originals dating from Tudor England • Some registers survive from before Cromwell’s order so his order made registers in England on a national scale • 40 registers surviving before 1538

6. Antiquarian Publication • John Charles Cox, The Parish Registers of England, (London, 1910) • This is in your dropbox folder and will be uploaded to UCC blackboard also.

7. Where to start in Ireland? • To trace family history in Irish church records you have to know where your ancestors lived. This means knowing the parish. • Finding an exact place of origin involves navigating both civil parishes and later on RC parishes keeping in mind that Ireland has colonial status from the 17th century onward.

8. Important facts • In 1831, some 80.3% of the population was Catholic, 10.7% was Church of Ireland (Anglican Protestants), and 8.1% were Presbyterians. • By 1911, the Catholic population had grown to 83% and the Protestant to 13% while Presbyterians and Methodists made up 2%. The remainder included a growing Jewish population, principally in Dublin, and Quakers (who had been in Ireland since 1650).

9. Finding records in Ireland • Family Search Collection • Family Search (the vast genealogy website run by the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) holds three collections that will be useful when trying to trace family history in Ireland. • Ireland Births & Baptisms 1620-1880 • Ireland marriages 1619-1898 • Ireland Deaths 1864-1870

10. Assets of Family search • Sizeable collection, several thousand Church of Ireland baptisms and marriage records from 1683 to late 1800s. • The source documents (ie the parish registers) of church records held in this collection can be viewed on microfiche or microfilm through the LDS Family History Center network for a small fee. You simply order the film or fiche containing the images of the register you are interested in. You can get further details of how to do this by contacting one of the Centers.

11. www.IrishGenealogy.ie • Launched in late 2009 with funding from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, IrishGenealogy was updated in June 2010 and October 2011 to include indexed register entries from the following counties: Carlow - Church of Ireland registersCork - Roman Catholic registers for the Cork & Ross dioceseDublin - Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic registersKerry - Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic registers.

12. IFHF/Roots Ireland • The huge online database of Roots Ireland is run by the Irish Family History Federation (IFHF) and contains nearly 12 million records of births, marriages and deaths. Not all of them are from parish registers, however, and records from five counties plus Southwest Cork and the City of Dublin are not included.

13. Important things to note about Roots Ireland • It is not free • Check the site holds baptism records for the parish you want to search. Just because the site says it holds records for a particular county, you shouldn't expect that it holds ALL records for that county. Coverage can be surprisingly patchy for different years, and for different religions. From the county map on the home page, you can see which records the IFHF database holds for 'your' county by clicking on for a 'detailed list of the searchable records'. Check this carefully to ensure your ancestor's parish is included.

14. Claire Santry tips of this site • Be as precise as possible with your searches and set yourself a budget before you begin. The search fields have been extended (Advanced Search) in most counties. Use them if you have additional information. For example, if you are searching for John Doyle's baptism and you know his father was Patrick and his mother's name Anne, include those names in the correct fields. It will narrow down the results significantly.

15. Roman Catholic records • Roman Catholic baptism, marriage and burial registers, unlike so many of their Church of Ireland counterparts, were not damaged in the 1922 fire at the old GRO. • The bad news is that, as a result of restrictions placed on Irish Catholics from 1550 until the Emancipation Act of 1829, proper record keeping was difficult and potentially dangerous for priests and their congregations, and only a small proportion of Roman Catholic baptism, marriage and burial registers survive from before the 1820s.

16. Exceptions • A number of urban registers date back to the mid-1700s (St Mary's in Limerick City (1745), or St Catherine's in Dublin (1740), for example) and even some small country parishes managed to keep their Roman Catholic baptism and marriage registers more or less intact from these early days (Wicklow (1747), Nobber in co Meath (1754) and Kilkerley in co Louth (1752) are examples).

17. Oldest Catholic records • the very oldest Irish Catholic records leap back almost another century; registers survive for Wexford Town since 1671. • In general, the oldest records hail from the more prosperous and anglicised eastern half of the island. Registers for more densely populated and poorer parishes in the west and north usually do not start until the mid-19th century. Of course, the poorer areas were also those that supplied the greatest numbers of emigrants which means that the descendants of those that left Ireland are the most likely to be frustrated by the lack of Catholic records.

18. What do they record? • record the date of baptism, the child's name, the father's name in full, the mother's first name and maiden surname, the name of any godparents (sponsors) and sometimes the residence of the parents.

19. Differences in registers • The inclusion of the mother's full maiden name, however, is the norm, unlike in Church of Ireland' registers. • you can be confident you are correctly matching each of the couple's children. In areas where surnames are especially common, this would not otherwise be the case. It also means you can trace your family history on your maternal lines as easily as your paternal lines. 

20. Roman Catholic Marriage registers • Most marriages took place in the bride's 'mother' church, ie the place where she was baptised. The wedding ceremony was usually held in the afternoon or early evening, and Christmas Eve and St Stephen's Day (26 December) were popular dates.

21. Marriage entries • A marriage entry typically includes the first name, surname, age, father's name and occupation, and place of residence for each of bride and groom. In addition, the address of the church where the ceremony took place is provided, as is the name of the officiating priest, and the names of two witnesses.

22. Place of residence • The place of residence was sometimes omitted in earlier registers but after the 1860s this became rarer because priests were provided with new registers which included a section for addresses.

23. Local Churches • Many, but not all, churches and congregations hold a copy or transcript of their original parish registers. How far back they go may differ significantly. So, too, will the access offered by the local priest, minister or vicar. • Access differs across churches • Parish registers are also available on microfilm at the National Library in Dublin

24. Archives and Heritage centres in Irelnd • National Archives of Ireland • National Library of Ireland • There are a growing number of city, county and regional websites containing transcripts of various baptism, marriage and burial registers, as well as gravestones. Some of these are pay-per-view (iewww.ancestryireland.co.uk for Antrim and Down and www.funeralbooking.ie for Dublin), some are subscription sites (ieEmerald Ancestors in Northern Ireland or Find My Past.ie) while others, such as www.cmcrp.net and IGP Archives, are free.

25. Registration Acts • Acted as a tax as fees eventually had to be paid to the exchequer • These taxes often paid for continental wars to ‘for carrying on the war against France with vigour’ in the seventeenth century. (Cox, 1910: 9)

26. Births, • 2 shilling for ordinary people • £30 for the son of a Duke or Marquis

27. Marriage • Duke £50 • Marquis £40 • Earl £30 • Batchelors above 25 years of age – 1 shilling • Widowers 1 shilling • Dukes – widowers £12 10 shillings • Marquis widowers £10 marquis • A discounted system reflecting the rapid re-marriage usually undertaken!

28. Costs – Examples of burial costs • Burial of a Duke of Marquis £50 • Every person having real estate over £50 or an income of £600 per year, £20 • The wife of a person with the above estate £10

29. Roman Cathoic Burial registers • Less than one-third of Ireland's surviving 325 burial registers date from the 19th century and about half don't start until the last two quarters or later. For example, each of county Longford's 20 parishes has a surviving burial register, the earliest dating from 1782, the latest starting in 1853/4.

30. Roman Catholic Registers • Compare that with county Cork, the island's largest county, where no burial registers survive, and county Clare, where only one register survives and that covering less than four years from 1844. • burial registers contain only the name of the deceased and the date of burial in many cases so all the graveyard project currently underway are of immense genealogical value

31. Church of Ireland records of baptism, marriage and burial. Irish parish registers and vestry minutes. • you need to know the name of the townland or parish where they lived. • Church of Ireland registers generally start a lot earlier than those of most other faiths in Ireland. This is because it was the Established or State Church and, as such, was legally obliged to keep records.

32. Obligation to keep records • This obligation dated back to the 17th century when baptisms and burials of Irish Protestants started to be recorded. This process began with urban areas and gradually spread out to the surrounding countryside but it was more than 100 years before some rural parishes were created.

33. Survival of records • More than half of all Church of Ireland registers were destroyed in the 1922 fire at the Public Records Office in Dublin. Ironically, they had been ordered to be sent there for safe keeping.

34. Order • That order had been made in 1876, a few years after the dis-establishment of the Church of Ireland as the state church. All its old registers, being state records, had to be sent to the Public Record Office unless the local clergy could demonstrate that they had suitable safe storage for them.

35. Records survival • Nearly 1000 parishes had decided to comply with the order to surrender their original registers to Dublin. • Fortunately, some clergymen made transcripts before parting with them. Another 637 parishes had not complied with the order and those registers survive.

36. Finding the right location • While locating the correct Roman Catholic parish can be difficult, it is quite easy to identify the parish of Irish protestants. Church of Ireland parishes are nearly always carbon copies of civil parishes. • If you know the name of the townland where your family lived, just enter it in the search box at Placenames Database of Ireland, confirm the county and then find the civil parish name on the right-hand side. (When trying to trace ancestors in Ireland it's worth taking the time to understand the differences between the various Irish land divisions

37. Other useful sites & services • http://www.seanruad.com/ • http://www.logainm.ie/ • Translate a list of places • http://www.logainm.ie/TranslateList.aspx?uiLang=en