how definitive is familysearch's index to civil registration indexes?

yaledo · 29-03-2011 1:50pm #1

I've had a fairly good success rate with births, marriages and deaths in Donegal from about 1888 on, but I found very few birth records from c. 1870.

Specifically, I was looking for
Micí Mac Gabhann, b. 22/11/1865 - he is the author of an autobiography "Rotha Mór an tSaoil".
Feidhlimi Mac Fhionnaile
Aodh Mac Fhionnaile, these last two appear in the same book, and they are roughly the same age as Micí.

Based on the information in the sticky thread on this forum, I fully expected to find Micí's birth record.
I tried every variant I could think of for surnames and given names, and was getting nothing.

To try and test the completeness of the record, I looked for all the births registered in "Donegal, Ireland" in 1870. restricted to the "Civil Registration Indexes" collection.
There seemed to me to very few, and 95% of them have names that look more likely to be protestant than catholic.

So maybe:
- The original records are far from complete.
or
- Some early ones were missed by whoever was compiling the index for the LDS

Any guidance warmly appreciated.

pinkypinky · 29-03-2011 3:37pm

You have looked under the English version of his name, I presume? It's very unlikely the name would be registered in Irish at that stage.
An 1865 birth could easily have been missed. Prior to about 1870, people were not in the habit of registering these events and slip-ups were made. Another possibility is that he was born a couple of years earlier than the received date which would knock him out of the civil indexes. It's common for people to be wrong about their year of birth before about 1920.

I believe there's a very low error rate in these indexes but the LDS are upgrading their site at the moment, so it's possible parts of it are offline. The latest version of the site (the beta one), allows you to search by registration district, so you may have more luck trying that way.

psycho-hope · 29-03-2011 4:36pm

so far ive found it almost bang on, only one family member was a bit out on year of birth but spoke to a family friend who is a historian and he said that would have been quite common back in the late 1800's, theres also a possiblity that when the births where being registered my ancestors got there 2 sons mixed up:rolleyes:

shanew · 29-03-2011 6:06pm

Apparently he was born in Cloughaneely, which is a district that covers a number of townlands near to Falcarragh. The registration district for this area is Dunfanaghy.

The most recent FamilySearch BMD index searches are by Registration District by default, and may give you results based on the registration district of Donegal (which covers areas to the south such as Donegal town, Mount Charles etc) rather than the entire county.

have you tried this one ?

name: Mick M'Gowan
registration district: Dunfanaghy
event type: BIRTHS
registration quarter and year: 1865
volume number: 17
page number: 52

Shane

shanew · 29-03-2011 6:44pm

The date doesn't quite fit, but there's a cross match for that index reference in the civil extracted records - the page number matches :

name: Mick Mcgowan
birth date: 16 Sep 1865
birthplace: 0052, Crossroad, Donegal
father's name: Thomas Mcgowan
mother's name: Biddy Cannon

Extracted records usually include a registration district or sub district as place of birth and there's an Electoral district named Crossroad as part of the Registration district of Dunfanaghy. The town of Falcarragh is included in this district.

Shane

yaledo · 29-03-2011 8:06pm

shanew wrote: »

have you tried this one ?

name: Mick M'Gowan
registration district: Dunfanaghy
event type: BIRTHS
registration quarter and year: 1865
volume number: 17
page number: 52

Shane

Shane, that is certainly him - I know that his parents names are Thomas and Biddy [its on page 1 of his autobiography!] He was born in the townland of Derryconnor, which is indeed in Cloughaneely, in Dunfanaghy Registrar's district.

Bizarrely, 30 minutes ago, a search on pilot.familysearch.org for M'Gowan, Birth, 1865, Donegal, Ireland yielded zero results, but now the same search yields 292 results.

I think they must be tinkering with the database.

Could you explain where it is possible to get access to the "civil extracted records". I've not met this term before, and google isn't helping.

Many thanks to all who replied

yaledo · 29-03-2011 8:10pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

The latest version of the site (the beta one), allows you to search by registration district, so you may have more luck trying that way.

Thanks pinkypinky,
I didn't know that 'beta' was more recent than 'pilot'. The facility to search by registration district will be a huge help.

shanew · 29-03-2011 8:46pm

The latest familysearch link is here : https://www.familysearch.org/

for the extracted collections, select 'Browse by Location' / Europe and then look for these items - 'Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881', 'Ireland Deaths, 1864-1870', 'Ireland Marriages, 1619-1898'

Dont be misled by the dates in the captions - they are not accurate, as the records contained go from the start of civil records (1845/1864) up to about 1880. These contain quite a number, but not all, civil records for the dates mentioned, and are useful as they show a bit more detail than the index... but not quite a much as an actual cert. e.g. you get parents names on births, father's names on marriages - but no occupations, and the 'address' is usually a registration district or sub-district. Often the record contains a page reference (like the 0052 above) which can help you find the correct full index reference which you need to order a cert from the GRO.

Shane

shanew · 29-03-2011 8:59pm

The townland of Derryconor is in the civil parish Tullaghobegly, and was in the Electoral District Gortahork, within Registrar's District of Cross Roads ... all part of Registration District of Dunfanaghy...

It's quite a large townland - about 1,200 acres, see : www.seanruad.com

Shane

how definitive is familysearch's index to civil registration indexes?

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