Certificate collection

lynny68

Hi, can anyone tell me which office I go to get copies of births/deaths/marriages for relatives. Im a tad confused as the website states Roscommon but another link says Dublin and do I have to go to different offices to get the certs.

Researching the family tree and coming over in a couple of months armed with all the info I need to get the certs...4 euros is much better than 20 per cert and it gives me a chance to visit the country too. Thanks Lynny

L1011

You can go to either, or order from Roscommon by credit card also.

CassieManson

lynny68 wrote: »

Hi, can anyone tell me which office I go to get copies of births/deaths/marriages for relatives. Im a tad confused as the website states Roscommon but another link says Dublin and do I have to go to different offices to get the certs.

Researching the family tree and coming over in a couple of months armed with all the info I need to get the certs...4 euros is much better than 20 per cert and it gives me a chance to visit the country too. Thanks Lynny

I live in Dublin, but I post the forms to Roscommon and request the certs to be sent by email. Last few batches I sent took about one week. Its a pretty good service - am afraid at some stage they will realise that 4Euro is too cheap and put the price up!

KildareFan

It's not too cheap when you're basically shooting in the dark. Sometimes you will find several people of the exact same name were born/married/died in the same quarter, in the same registration district. Then you have to order a cert for each one, or guess.

I now have a collection of certs for the wrong people because I guessed wrong. The staff in Werburgh St won't check to eliminate the wrong registrations e.g. only if the father's name is X.

CassieManson

KildareFan wrote: »

It's not too cheap when you're basically shooting in the dark. Sometimes you will find several people of the exact same name were born/married/died in the same quarter, in the same registration district. Then you have to order a cert for each one, or guess.

I now have a collection of certs for the wrong people because I guessed wrong. The staff in Werburgh St won't check to eliminate the wrong registrations e.g. only if the father's name is X.

Its not cheap when I add up all of the certs I have sent for. I have been lucky not to get too many wrong certs, I guess it depends on the family names and how popular they are.

L1011

One thing that can reduce the number of wrong certs *slightly* is that the IFHF website has a few years in full for some areas (e.g. the cert transcripts, not just the index) and has a deeper search engine. Managed to trace a few difficult certs - common names or unknown father surname ones - via it. If you have the credits for a "free" search its definitely worth checking there.

I can only assume they're from the registers that the Mormons microfilmed but have not yet digitised - listed on Clare Santry's site: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-civil-registration.html but due to the IFHFs structure not every registration district has them transcribed there either.

Lets hope the new GRO site due imminently sorts all this out properly.

KildareFan

Maybe there should be a clearance website for the "oops, I guessed and got the wrong cert" certs so at least others can benefit from our bad guessing.

Hermy

KildareFan wrote: »

Maybe there should be a clearance website for the "oops, I guessed and got the wrong cert" certs so at least others can benefit from our bad guessing.

I think there already is such a site - someone mentioned it here before - but I can't remember the name of it.

EDIT: A quick Google search for unwanted bmd certs brings up various options.

L1011

I've put any I've hit by mistake on http://www.certificate-exchange.co.uk/. Something similar (and legal) for "unwanted IFHF bought records" would be handy too :pac:

pinkypinky

Rootschat has a forum for this too.

lynny68

Thanks guys, rang the Dublin office yesterday to check info on a particular relative and spoke to a nice guy who advised I can spend a day researching and then get the certs from there the same day.

Will be going armed with loads of links for family members. So far ive been lucky with my searching....double triple and quadruple checking before applying for certs..recently had trouble tracking a family from 1901-1911 census...reason being the 1911 transcriber had put an E on the end of Carolan and he shouldnt have, lord knows why put it on as the original form was without the E.

L1011

You can only get 5 certs per person present on the day. The rest are mailed out. If it's quiet and you want 6 or 7 they might but don't expect them to.

Submit a correction for the census - they do get looked at eventually. May save someone else some time.

lynny68

Have already submitted the correction for the entry, and the man I spoke to said I could have 8 on the day. Oh can anyone recommend a decent hotel thats not too expensive in the centre of Dublin, ill be coming over the end of April for 4 nights. Thanks

L1011

Sorry, forgot its eight if you pay to use the record books there - I've always just got record entries off Familysearch/Ancestry first.

The Academy Plaza is where I generally recommend for a city centre hotel, not horribly dear but a proper modern hotel.

KildareFan

Don't expect too much in the way of research facilities in the GRO office in Werburgh Street. All they have is the registers of births/marriages/deaths. Five euro to look at five years worth of registers, 20 euro for unrestricted access to the registers.

If you have already sourced the registration district, volume and page numbers from family search or ancestry.com, you don't need to look at the registers at all - just fill in the forms, and hand them in.

Payment is in cash only - no credit or debit cards.

Jury's Christchurch is around the corner. The entrance to Jury's car park is across the road from the Office.

pinkypinky

KildareFan wrote: »

Don't expect too much in the way of research facilities in the GRO office in Werburgh Street. All they have is the registers of births/marriages/deaths. Five euro to look at five years worth of registers, 20 euro for unrestricted access to the registers.

If you have already sourced the registration district, volume and page numbers from family search or ancestry.com, you don't need to look at the registers at all - just fill in the forms, and hand them in.

Payment is in cash only - no credit or debit cards.

Jury's Christchurch is around the corner. The entrance to Jury's car park is across the road from the Office.

All they have??
This is a lot. I admit they're not my favourite repository but you can't get the actual certificates from another organisation!

KildareFan

Yes - it's great to get your hands on the certs. I still get a shiver down my spine when I see details of the lives & deaths of my ancestors written down, and the surprises that emerge. Generally how short first pregnancies were. I have found so many marriages, followed two or three months later by a birth. Makes me look at the ancestors in a new light. Other surprises can be cause of death, who the informants were, addresses etc.

What I meant was that the title 'Research Room' may lead someone to expect something more than the registers. It's not much of an advantage to search through the printed registers if you have the registration details already from Familysearch, or other websites. I don't use the printed registers any more, hoping that the transcriptions are accurate, which they usually are.

For anyone who wants to research beyond the registers, some good places to go in Dublin are the National Archives & the National Library - both of which provide genealogical advice. The Gibson library on Pearse street is also great, as it has a full set of directories going back to the 1700s on open access...

Anyway, happy hunting to Lynny68!

pedroeibar1

KildareFan wrote: »

Payment is in cash only - no credit or debit cards.

Thanks for that - I know it's only €20 or so but they used to accept plastic in their old (Irish Life) office.

shanew

I would refer to the red/green/black volumes you get to look at in the GRO research room as 'Index Books' rather than registers, you dont get to see the actual registers

KildareFan

shanew wrote: »

I would refer to the red/green/black volumes you get to look at in the GRO research room as 'Index Books' rather than registers, you dont get to see the actual registers

You're right - I meant the index books. it would be great to browse the actual registers even on microfiche.

The baptismal and marriage registers online on IrishGenealogy.ie have opened up family/historical research to an incredible extent. Such a pity they're confined to so few counties.

dido2

I found on my one trip to the GRO offices in Dublin, that the indexes having the persons actual date of birth on them made a huge difference along with the mothers maiden name pre 1927 back to I think 1903, both of those can make it much easier to figure out the right one!

Another thing I do with the GRO in Roscommon is I'll put together a list of possible certs and if I've 1 piece of identifying info like a mothers name, fathers name or an address I'll ask that they only send me the one with matching info, i've found many certs this way where I didn't know say a date of death other than after 1925 but I did have a definate address and I got the cert in the first batch covering 10 years that I sent...

CassieManson

dido2 wrote: »

I found on my one trip to the GRO offices in Dublin, that the indexes having the persons actual date of birth on them made a huge difference along with the mothers maiden name pre 1927 back to I think 1903, both of those can make it much easier to figure out the right one!

Another thing I do with the GRO in Roscommon is I'll put together a list of possible certs and if I've 1 piece of identifying info like a mothers name, fathers name or an address I'll ask that they only send me the one with matching info, i've found many certs this way where I didn't know say a date of death other than after 1925 but I did have a definate address and I got the cert in the first batch covering 10 years that I sent...

That's good to know, I did not realise you could do that. I thought you would have to pay for each cert.

dido2

It's very handy, once you supply the details from Family search they will do it, as to if they mind doing it or not I'm not sure but they've never not done it! It's actually how I've found a lot certs really with Common surnames, like Sullivan, Shea and Riordan, I don't think I'd have gotten this far if they didn't do it for me, I suppose what they have the details you supply and they check if it matches or not and won't send certs if none match either...

I've also used just dates of birth, or dates of death from headstones to order death certs too... I think once theres no "search" involved they are pretty good at helping...

KildareFan

I must have met the unhelpful ones - I asked them to only give me certs with specific parent's names or whatever, and was refused.... seems to depend on who's at the desk.

dido2

Kildarefan

I done all mine through sending off the form to the GRO in roscommon and they email them back to me, didn't do it in the offices!

Louise

hjr

dido2 wrote: »

Kildarefan

I done all mine through sending off the form to the GRO in roscommon and they email them back to me, didn't do it in the offices!

Louise

Hi Louise,

Could you point me in the direction of the form you use? I have some certs I need to get, but rather than going to Dublin I may just request them from Roscommon!

Thanks

shanew

hjr wrote: »

....Could you point me in the direction of the form you use? I have some certs I need to get, but rather than going to Dublin I may just request them from Roscommon!
....

you can download the order forms from this link (GRO/HSE/Welfare.ie)

CassieManson

shanew wrote: »

you can download the order forms from this link (GRO/HSE/Welfare.ie)

Make sure you tick the email option, if this is what you want. Otherwise they send a paper copy in the post.

hjr

CassieManson wrote: »

Make sure you tick the email option, if this is what you want. Otherwise they send a paper copy in the post.

Thanks for the link. Just wondering if I find the record on familysearch, is there someone on that form to put in the reference code? I didn't see one....

Thanks

CassieManson

hjr wrote: »

Thanks for the link. Just wondering if I find the record on familysearch, is there someone on that form to put in the reference code? I didn't see one....

Thanks

Its not actually on the form, so I just add the info (Volume and Page) , usually near date. So long as its clear they dont mind

dido2

I've downloaded and edited the Application form to take out what we don't need, if you fill out just the 2 sections then add another sheet with the info from FamilySearch along the lines of this

Name William O'Riordan
Event Type Birth
Event Date Jul - Sep 1882
Event Place Cork, Ireland
Volume Number 5
Page Number 124

Then you can either fax or post it off

I'll add my own edited version of the form