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*Tracing Your Roots > Irish > Irish Records
* Information Given at the GRO 
 
Although the local registrars were responsible for the registers themselves, the legal requirement to register births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the public and was enforced with hefty fines. The classes of people required to carry out registration in each of the three categories is given below, along with a detailed account of the information they were required to supply. Bear in mind that not all of this information is relevant to genealogical research.

Births
Persons required to register births were:

  • The parent or parents
  • Or in the case of death or inability of the parent or parents, the occupier of the house or *tenement in which the child was born
  • Or the nurse
  • Or any person present at the birth of the child
The information they were required to supply was:

  • Date and place of birth
  • Name (if any)
  • Sex
  • Name, surname and dwelling place of the father
  • Name, surname, *maiden surname and dwelling place of the mother
  • Rank, profession or occupation of the father
The informant and the registrar were both required to sign each entry, which was also to include the date of registration, the residence of the informant and his or her 'qualification' (for example, 'present at birth'). The birth was to be notified within 21 days and full details within three months.

It was not obligatory to register a first name for the child. The very small proportion for which no first name was supplied appear in the index as, for example, Kelly (male) or Murphy (female).

Deaths
Persons required to register deaths were:

  • A person present at death
  • Or some person in attendance during the last illness of the deceased
  • Or the occupier of the house or *tenement where the death took place
  • Or someone else residing in the house or *tenement where the death took place
  • Or any person present at or having knowledge of the circumstances of the death
The information they were required to supply was:

  • Date and place of death
  • Name and surname of the deceased
  • Sex of the deceased
  • Condition of the deceased as to marriage
  • Age of the deceased at last birthday
  • Rank, profession or occupation of the deceased
  • Certified cause of death, and the duration of the final illness
Again, the informant and the registrar were both required to sign each entry, which was also to include the date of registration, the residence of the informant and his or her 'qualification' (for example, 'present at death'). Notice to the registrar of the death was to be given within 7 days and full details within 14 days.

Marriages
From 1864, any person whose marriage was to be celebrated by a Catholic clergyman was required to have the clergyman fill out a certificate containing the information detailed below and forward it to the registrar within three days of the marriage. In practice, as had already been the case for non-Catholic marriages from 1845, the clergyman simply kept blank copies of these certificates, filled them in after the ceremony, and forwarded them to the registrar. It is still important to remember, though, that legal responsibility for the registration actually rested with the parties marrying, not the clergyman.

The information to be supplied was:

  • The date when married
  • The names and surnames of each of the parties marrying
  • Their respective ages
  • Their condition (that is, *bachelor, *spinster, *widow, *widower)
  • Their *rank, *profession or occupation
  • Their residences at the time of marriage
  • The name and surname of the fathers of each of the parties
  • The rank, profession or occupation of the fathers of each of the parties
The certificate was to state where the ceremony had been performed, and to be signed by the clergyman, the parties marrying and two witnesses.

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Creators: John Grenham

 
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