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Trawling the records?

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  • 06-04-2011 1:31am
    #1
    P. Breathnach
    Registered Users Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭


    I know that my great-grandfather was alive in about 1894, and I am reasonably confident that I know where he lived. I infer that he was dead by 1901, because his eldest son was returned in the census as Head of Family when the family was himself and his siblings.

    I could round off this paragraph of my story neatly if I could confirm my inference with a death certificate. I have identified four plausible prospects in the LDS index (fairly common name, Dublin registration district, lack of certainty about his age). I could order all four death certificates and see if there is a basis for accepting one rather than the others.

    Or is there something I can do to narrow the search before ordering certificates?


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    #2
    shanew
    Registered Users Posts: 2,777 ✭✭✭shanew


    Unfortunately name, age and location are pretty much all the initial clues you have for locating deaths in the index. You can sometimes narrow it down a bit by check for a specific registration district (Dublin North/Dublin South/Rathdown/Balrothery) - although that may not help much it the death took place in Dublin city. Ages can be quite inaccurate on death certs as they depend on how much detail the informant has on the deceased.

    I've had difficulty locating a number of deaths for my ancestors as they were not locate anywhere where near where I expected them to be. e.g. one gt-Grandfather lived all his life in Co. Wicklow near to Bray and eventually found his death in Sandymount.. turns out he was living with one of his sons in Dublin.

    One other idea you can try is to check for burials on the Glasnevin website. It is possible to do free index searching with names dates and partial addresses.. which can help as long as the name is not too common and you have a possible address


    Shane


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    #3
    P. Breathnach
    Registered Users Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    Thanks for the Glasnevin suggestion, Shane.

    Tried it, got results, including a couple of surprises.

    The big surprise was the burial of a family member of whose existence I had been unaware.

    The second surprise was the reported age of my great-grandfather - about 15 years older than I expected. I have a picture of him from five years before his death, and he looked to be about forty, and his wife was just over forty at the time. Yet his age at death was given as 66. I can match it with an LDS entry (one I had previously disregarded because of age at d.o.d.) so the story seems to hang together. I cannot suppose an error due to poor family literacy: the eldest child was employed as a clerk. So I suppose I must accept that the unexpected data is near enough correct. Unless you can give me reason to think otherwise.


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    #4
    shanew
    Registered Users Posts: 2,777 ✭✭✭shanew


    hopefully there will be details on the death cert which can confirm your connection - e.g. the occupation, place of death or the name and address of the informant.

    Full records from Glasnevin can also be useful if there are a number of family members buried in the same plot - as it can help to confirm connections...

    Re: ages on certs - one of my gtgtgt-grandfathers was reported by his wife to be 90 years old at his death, but was actually 80. All the family were educated and could read and write so I'm not sure why the mistake was made - maybe the stress of the situation caused her to subtract years incorrectly..


    Shane


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    #5
    P. Breathnach
    Registered Users Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    It's getting worse! My great-grandfather was born in Arklow, and a researcher has put abstracts of Arklow church records online. There is an apparent match for a birth in 1831, adding a couple of years to the 66 that surprised me. It's easy to suppose that in 1899 a young literate adult son could be a couple of years out on his father's age.

    The evidence that he was probably a good deal older than I had supposed is mounting up.


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