The Burning of the Four Courts

Victor

A friend's father never had a birth cert. He was registered, but the family didn't have a copy. When the Four Courts were burned, the births records were lost.

This type of thing is still causing problems, although in this case, who knows if he might have been registered or not. :rolleyes:

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/8041774?view=Eircomnet

Man (85) told he doesn't exist
From:The Irish Independent
Friday, 12th May, 2006

AN 85-YEAR-OLD former civil servant has been told he doesn't exist.

Patrick Kane, from Strabane, Co Tyrone, has been refused a passport by the Northern authorities because his birth in April 1921 was never registered.

He's hoping to visit his son Michael, who lives in Spain, but said his application for his first passport has been rejected because he doesn't have a birth certificate. He retired from the North's Department of the Environment 20 years ago.

"I worked for a government department, I'm receiving a pension from a government department, I've a medical card from a government department, I've a driving licence from a government department and I've been on the electoral register for all of my adult life.

"But according to the passport office in Belfast I don't exist because my birth was never registered.

"My five brothers and four sisters have passports, my four sons and two daughters and most of my 22 grandchildren have passports.

"But I'm told I can't have one because of some administrative mistake that took place 85 years ago which means I don't exist."

A spokesperson for the Belfast Identity and Passport Service said their records showed that no application had been received from Mr Kane.

But Mr Kane hit back. "If they never received an application from me, why have they sent me a refusal note, how did they know who and where to send it?"

"It's madness. I was born in the remote mountain village of Cranagh in the Sperrins on April 21, 1921, before partition. Paperwork wasn't a priority then."

ISAW

Victor wrote:

A friend's father never had a birth cert. He was registered, but the family didn't have a copy. When the Four Courts were burned, the births records were lost.

This type of thing is still causing problems, although in this case, who knows if he might have been registered or not. :rolleyes:

Was his family religious. It is likely that they were back themn. was he christened? The Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church would also keep local records. The baptismal records of the local parish would include a birth date and a link to the marriage cert of the parents. even (and particularly) if he was illegimate (to prevent insest with some relative down the line).

If he still resides in Ireland or if his father did then there is no doubt he was a citizen. Many of these records can be got in the national Library in Kildare street. IOnce the doccumentation is available take it to the local registrar for births deaths and marriages and they will write you up a Birth Cert.

Victor

ISAW wrote:

Was his family religious.

Oh yeah! I don't think it ever presented a fundamental problem, just a glitch in the matrix.

You know him from the other board.

spanner

it is terrible how the four courts were bombed. It took a lot of valuable records with it. It is very hard to do a long search on family history because of it.

The same problem happened to my Granny when she was going to america, she had no passport and no birth cert. What they had to do was get somebody who was over 18 at the time to verify that she was born!
that person was quite old and this was 10years ago, I dont he is going to have much luck with that

A Dub in Glasgo

I thought it was the Custom House burning that lost the records

ISAW

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

I thought it was the Custom House burning that lost the records

ah sure it doesen't matter. the "staters" did it anyway

Nevyn

They hit both of them.
There are still land and property disputes at arise as the records were destroyed.

spanner

ISAW wrote:

ah sure it doesen't matter. the "staters" did it anyway

Correction Ernie O'Malley set up a booby Trap bomb in the record office so as to catch the "staters" coming in

ISAW

spanner wrote:

Correction Ernie O'Malley set up a booby Trap bomb in the record office so as to catch the "staters" coming in

Ah! I suppose he didnt want to take the credit "on another mans wounds"