How Can I find out if someone is dead or alive in Ireland

Amanda7326

Hi All,

Hoping someone will be able to help me answer this, sorry if I have put this in the wrong place.

I am trying to find somebody for my Dad, I know the town he was born in, his name and nickname, his date of birth, what his occupation used to be, and the last county he was known to be in

Haven't heard anything from him in 30 years, and we don't know whether he is dead or alive but either way we are desperate to find out.

He would be about 62 now if he is alive

I tried the obvious... google, facebook, linkedin etc. But I thought it would be easier to find out some information. I don't want to sign up to any of those sites where I have to give my credit card info etc. to register

Does anyone have any ideas?

We have tried the guards but as he has never had a record they couldn't help

Any advice would be appreciated

Into The Blue

Rip.ie

spurious

I believe the Salvation Army are very good at looking for people.

brightspark

At that age he may not be "online", depending on his name have you tried the phone book? (No disrespect intended to many of that age who are online, but I know several people around that age who have no interest in being online)

http://www.eircomphonebook.ie

johnnyskeleton

Request a copy birth and death cert from the registrar of births deaths and marriages if he is a relative. Use Thomms directory or the phone book to look him up. Visit the area and ask around. Or hire a private detective to do the above.

GerardKeating

Into The Blue wrote: »

Rip.ie

Electoral register is also an option.

ozmo

Post him a letter with the last known partial address? Worth a shot for the price of a stamp. If you can get even close - Local postman might recognise the name.

Pat Mustard

ozmo wrote: »

Post him a letter with the last known partial address? Worth a shot for the price of a stamp. If you can get even close - Local postman might recognise the name.

Land Registry search may yield an address also.

Shelflife

Local post office would be a good bet, we get loads of similar requests .

AprilPhilips

Go to the last town he was in and contact people in his occupation. If he was a gardener go to places who supply garden eqipment etc in that town. Go to the library and look up old local papers and see if he had an advert for his services. if he had go to the paper and ask what address they had for that advert. and look at death notices too. also contact local undertakers in that town

If he had any medical issues go to support groups/ doctors etc and see if they had any contact. doctors may not tell you but try. Same for any hobbies or interest. if he liked horses go to all the bookies etc

Ask yourself if you were him how would you have spent an average week. Track all the people and places he would have gone

Use everything you know about him as a start and go outwards in a circle from there contacting people he may have known and people they may have known and so on

conorh91

For a small country, it's quite easy to go missing in Ireland. In some countries you have public electoral registers, but here they're very difficult to search.

The only people who are bound to know whether your father is living in Ireland are Revenue and/or Social Protection. Unfortunately I don't think there is any way of accessing any confirmation from them without Garda involvement.

Irish Newspaper Archive might be of some help. I think public libraries might have access to it for free.

Shelflife

Shelflife wrote: »

Local post office would be a good bet, we get loads of similar requests .

This! 100%. About 10 years ago I wanted to trace the family of a man who died in 1957 so the most obvious thing to do was for me to ring the local fear an phoist/postman. It might be a bit different in Dublin, but I suspect it's not that different in many cases (as there are old, well-established, close-knit communities across the city).

I was doubly in luck because the husband of the woman in the post office was also the funeral undertaker. He said he'd go and search his files and find the details for a surviving relative. He rang back an hour later, gave me an old landline number and I was able to have a great chat with the surviving relative.


Here's the Eircom phonebook for Ireland (set at "Residential")

PS: Another handy hint is if you don't know the exact name, or if the number is "ex directory" just use the above phonebook to ring somebody with the same surname in the same area. They'll be able to put you on the right track - even if it's a "first name unknown" O'Reilly "somewhere" in Cavan!

AprilPhilips

conorh91 wrote: »

For a small country, it's quite easy to go missing in Ireland. In some countries you have public electoral registers, but here they're very difficult to search.

The only people who are bound to know whether your father is living in Ireland are Revenue and/or Social Protection. Unfortunately I don't think there is any way of accessing any confirmation from them without Garda involvement.

Irish Newspaper Archive might be of some help. I think public libraries might have access to it for free.

the electoral register is public you could search it in the library

conorh91

AprilPhilips wrote: »

the electoral register is public you could search it in the library

Only for your local area, though. That's what I mean by difficulty.

AprilPhilips

conorh91 wrote: »

Only for your local area, though. That's what I mean by difficulty.

correct. op says she knows last town but also the register will have been updated now. Butif she went to the council in the last town thye may have old copies of the old register

Victor

It will somewhat depend on where. Such enquiries much be much easier in Achill than a city.

Parish priest or equivalent.
Doctor
Dentist
Undertaker.
Solicitors
School principal(s).
Garda station.

Write to each, explaining what you are about, enclose a stamped letter for the friend and ask the recipient to forward it if they know the person or otherwise to destroy it / return it to you. Obviously include your contact details.

Amanda7326

Thanks all for your help but so far no luck :-( and it is very important for my family to find him

Does anyone have any other ideas?

I cant check the voting register as all we know is that he moved to Dublin about 25 years ago..... no idea what part or where he is now

We know:

Full name & nickname
Date of birth
Original town
& that he moved to dublin 25 years ago

I feel like we have hit a brick wall

MillField

Liam Neeson

Amanda7326

colmulhall wrote: »

Liam Neeson

Might be a good idea.... but we dont want to kill him when we find him lol so Liam is out as an option ;-)

hinault

Amanda7326 wrote: »

Thanks all for your help but so far no luck :-( and it is very important for my family to find him

Does anyone have any other ideas?

I cant check the voting register as all we know is that he moved to Dublin about 25 years ago..... no idea what part or where he is now

We know:

Full name & nickname
Date of birth
Original town
& that he moved to dublin 25 years ago

I feel like we have hit a brick wall

Have you tried finding the man's blood relatives?

If you know the man's date of birth and original town, you might have some luck locating the same man's relatives (if he had any) living proximate to the original town. Try contacting them.

nuac

Send the details you have to Dept of Social Protection with a letter for the man.

They may not be able to give you information on him, but may forward your letter to him if they have an address for him

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

4ensic15

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

What good would it do debt collectors? The debt dodger gets a letter to say X is looking for you. Please give him a call so you can discuss the account.
No call and debt collector is in the same position as he started with the price of a stamp wasted.

feargale

@Amanda: You clearly don't want to divulge much detail of him here, but could you just tell us what his occupation used to be? It might make it easier to advise.

Amanda7326

Thats for replies everyone,

In response to everyones questions:

Unfortunately we are his blood relatives - so contacting them is out of the question. Due to small family and deceased adoptive parents there is no other family left except for my dad who is his brother

He used to be a teacher/lecturer and moved to dublin over 20 years ago

The guards cant find him as he has no record, have tried all of the colleges, social welfare office wont give out his pps number

feargale

Amanda7326 wrote: »

Thats for replies everyone,
In response to everyones questions:
Unfortunately we are his blood relatives - so contacting them is out of the question. Due to small family and deceased adoptive parents there is no other family left except for my dad who is his brother
He used to be a teacher/lecturer and moved to dublin over 20 years ago
The guards cant find him as he has no record, have tried all of the colleges, social welfare office wont give out his pps number

Ok. I take it he hasn't inherited something in a will, otherwise your solicitor would point you to various ways of chasing him.
And I take it he has/had no family of his own.
Did he take a drink? People from certain counties gravitate towards certain pubs in Dublin.
Was he interested in sport, even as a spectator? If he followed a certain team it might lead you to his social circle.
You could scour the electoral register for Dublin, but that would be quite a chore.
Have you tried to locate him through churches, assuming he worshipped somewhere. A letter to the Archbishop ( or the Rabbi as the case might be) could yield something.
Have you tried the Dept of Education?
If you think he might have fallen on hard times the Salvation Army, as already mentioned, is your best bet.
Failing all of those, you could try a letter in Ireland's Own.
And finally, you could if you saw fit in desperation name him on Boards in the hope that somebody here has been taught by him.
I realise this is scraping the bucket, but you seem to have exhausted all the obvious channels.

Losty Dublin

Considering that you say he was a lecturer/teacher, have you tried contacting one of the teacher unions to see if they've word or wind of him? Also, his line of lecturing may lead you to a particular institution or trade guild or association. I appreciate it's probable that you've tried these ideas and I apologise if you've tried these approaches already.

brightspark

As you obviously know the surname etc., have you tried

http://ie.ratemyteachers.com

It seems to cover lecturers too.

Obviously if he has retired it may not work.

(You can search other countries with it too, if it's possible he moved to USA or Australia etc?)

4ensic15

It would be very unusual for former teachers or lecturers not to maintain contact with former colleagues. If he was a lecturer in any third level institute he must have a degree and there must be classmates around, some of whom should be traceable. RIP.IE gives deaths back to 2007 and is easily checked.

delahuntv

Joe Duffy (even though i despise his programme) is probably best option.

slimjimmc

How do you know he's even in this country and hasn't emigrated over the last 30 years?
Check the marriage register too. If he got married in Ireland then you may be able to trace him through his OH.

Cushie Butterfield

If the person you are looking for is one who has lost contact but who is not a missing person then you can use the Add Lost Contact Form on the missing.ie website to request that they be added to the website.