
The process of tracing your family history can be expensive with many websites offering paid subscription-only services. Sites offering free access are always a good place to start tracing your family. The free online website https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en is a great way to access Irish Civil Records.
It covers the official state records of
- Births 1864 to 1919 (only births more than 100 years old can be published online)
- Protestant marriages 1845 till 1944 (due to the 75 year rule)
- Catholic marriages 1864 till 1944 (due to the 75 year rule).
- Deaths 1878 till 1969 (50 year rule)
This is a great free resource but unfortunately, due to Partition, the site does not cover Northern Ireland records post 1921.
Birth Records
The birth record will show
- The date and location of the birth.
- The first name(s) of the infant.
- The father’s name, address and occupation. Also if he has since died, the mother’s name and her maiden name.
- The name and address (if different) of the person who registered the birth.
- Births taking place in the Lying-In Hospital or Workhouse will be registered by the current Occupier at the time.
Marriage Records
These will show a copy of the church or civil marriage record.
It details:
- the date and location of the service
- the name, address and occupation of the groom.
- the father of the groom’s name and occupation and often if he is living or deceased.
- the name, address and occupation of the bride.
- the bride’s fathers name and occupation and often if living or dead.
- ages (the record can list ages, but this column is often marked F, as in Full Age i.e. 21 or over).
- the Condition of the participants will be noted e.g. Bachelor, Widower, Spinster or Widow.
- the two witnesses to the wedding
- the signatures of the bride and groom, though this is often their ‘mark’.
- the priest, minister or registrar who officiated at the ceremony.
- Non Catholic marriages are available from 1845.
Death Records
Death records list:
- The date and location the death occurred.
- The name, sex and condition of the deceased.
- Age and occupation.
- Cause of death.
- The name, address and signature of the person who registered the death.
- In the case of an unusual death, the name of the coroner and the date of the inquest will also be recorded.
For Belfast deaths, it is also sometimes useful to check the Lisburn Registration District, as this was the location of the Fever Hospital.
Deaths occurring in the Workhouse, Hospital or Asylum will be registered by the current Occupier at the time.
What are others reading now?
If you enjoyed this article…
Belfast Entries is a husband & wife hobby website featuring articles on our shared history, memories and entertaining stories of our past. We hope you enjoy visiting the website. If you like our posts please help us to grow our readership by sharing any posts that you like. There are social media sharing icons at the foot of each post. Simply tap to share with your friends.
A Word of Thanks
We would particularly like to thank those who have made a donation via Paypal or the “Buy Us A Coffee” feature. Every small donation goes a little way towards covering the costs of running the website and helps us keep Belfast Entries running. Your support is appreciated.
Click the image below to read more about making a small donation.
We have 2 donations this month. Thank you very much. Much appreciated 🙂
We had 2 donations last month.
Thank you all for your generosity and words of encouragement
Please share our posts to help us increase readership for future posts. All posts can be shared directly from this website page or can be shared from our Facebook page.
Cost of Living Crisis
Given the current cost of living crisis that will impact so many in coming months we have added a page signposting organisations that may be able to offer support. We have no relationship with these organisations and cannot offer financial advice but we hope that some of the links may prove useful.
Copyright Notice
Belfast Entries posts & photos are our intellectual property and copyrighted to us. Where we use photos that do not belong to us, it is because we believe them to be in the public domain or shared under a Creative Commons licence with appropriate attribution. None of our content or images can be used without our consent. Note that a link to our Copyright & Takedown notice is included in the website footer on all pages.
0 Comments