Searching the Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes on the "Old" LDS Website

Searching the Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes on the "Old" LDS Website

During the 1950s, as part of a major genealogical project, the Church of Latter-Day Saints [LDS], or Mormons, microfilmed all of the indexes to the civil registers of births, marriages and deaths held in the Registrar General’s Office, Custom House, Dublin, at that time. These included the birth indexes 1864–1959; the marriage indexes 1845–1959 and the death indexes 1864–1959. Until recently, apart from the GRONI in Belfast and the GRONI at Abbey Street in Dublin, these indexes were only available for inspection within Northern Ireland at the Mormon Family Centres in Londonderry and Belfast. The Births Index [1864-1922] could also be inspected at PRONI [MIC/165].

In January 2009 an online, searchable database of these indexes became available on the LDS website. Note, however, that only pre-1922 births, deaths and marriages are included for Northern Ireland. Since this project was in its pilot stage, the Ireland, Civil Registration database was a separate entity within the "old" LDS website. What follows is a demonstration of how I searched these indexes for marriages, births and deaths on the LDS website in 2009. Here I have used examples of three of my ancestors. Below is a sequence of text which will take you through the process and at each stage there is a screenshot of what you would see on your computer screen at each stage. If you have difficulty reading the text in some of the screenshots, increase the zoom in your browser window to 125%. Note also that in these examples I tended to use a very general search which I then narrowed down.

Marriage

I began with a search for the marriage of my great-grandfather William McAfee or Macafee to Elizabeth Thompson in 1886. My first attempts at finding William McAfee or William Macafee produced nil results. I finally found him when I entered his surname as M'Afee. You will often find this with names beginning with Mc. The people who compiled the indexes in the nineteenth century had a tendency to use M' instead of Mc, despite the fact that the surname was usually spelt Mc on the marriage or birth certificate. Note that, generally, this same problem does not occur on the "new" website.

As you can see from the search box below, you can either enter something in all of the search boxes or, as I did, you can enter very little information. Note that I have only entered the surname M'Afee and the location Antrim, Ireland. I often do this because I can narrow the search later.

As you can see from the screenshot below the search brought out 924 matches.

I then narrowed these to 3 matches by selecting Event Type - Marriage; First Name - W; and Date - 1880 - 1889 as shown below. Clearly the first of the marriages in this list is the one that I want because the date is correct and the Registration District - Ballymoney is correct. Note that the Ballymoney Registration District listed here is the Superintendent's Registration District [i.e. the Poor Law Union] not the local Registration District which I know was also Ballymoney.

When I clicked on William Macafee further details appeared on the screen, as shown below. Here I can see that the marriage took place in the third quarter of 1886 [Jul-Sep], the volume number of ther marriage register is 1 and the page number, within that volume, is 159. If I want to get a copy of the marriage certificate from either the GROI in Dublin or at Roscommon then I require these details. Note, however, that the Film, Digital G.S. and Image numbers are not required - they refer to the Mormon microfilms in Utah. Note also that GRONI, Belfast do not use this index.

In the case of a marriage you can always check that you have identified the correct William Macafee by doing a search for the spouse Elizabeth Thompson. When searching for Elizabeth, this time I filled in all of the search boxes as the screenshot below shows.

This time there were 64 matches and Elizabeth was first on the list. I clicked on Elizabeth Thompson and the screenshot below shows the details of the marriage which match exactly with those for William Macafee.

Remember the GRONI in Belfast does not use these indexes. They have their own indexes for marriage where you need to know the date of the marriage, the names of the bride and groom and the church or registry office where the marriage took place. You can ask for either a verification which is simply a typed copy of the marriage entry. You can also obtain an official copy. Click here to see the official marriage certificate for the above marriage which I obtained from GRONI, Belfast by phone.

Birth

Here is an example of a birth. The principles of searching are the same as above. Here I am looking for the registration of the birth of my grandfather, William. I think he was born around 1894. The screenshot below shows the information included in the various search boxes.

This screenshot shows the birth of a William Macafee registered Oct-Dec 1893 in the Ballymoney Registration District. This Registration District is the Superintendent's Registrar's District which is also the Ballymoney Poor Law Union. Incidentally the Jane and Robert Macafee are William's sister and brother. See a copy of the 1911 Census Form.

When I click on William Macafee further details appear on the screen, as shown below. Here I can see that the the volume number of the birth register is 1 and the page number is 106. If I want to get a copy of the birth certificate from either the GROI in Dublin or at Roscommon then I require these details. GRONI, Belfast does not use the same volume and page numbers. Note again that the Film, Digital G.S. and Image numbers are not required - they refer to the Mormon microfilms in Utah.

Death

Finally here is a search for the death of William's father who was called Robert. Robert was a carpenter who lived in the townland of Ballywattick Upper, a few miles outside the town of Ballymoney.

Here is the result of the search. Note that the age of death and estimated date of birth are included. Note also that Robert John Macafee, who was listed here as dying in the same year, was Robert's nephew. Robert John lived in the the townland of Bootown where Robert of Ballywattick was born. Robert's father was also a Robert McAfee. Robert John's father was James [Teacher] McAfee, an elder brother of Robert of Ballywattick.

Note that all of the dates in these examples refer to the date when each event was registered not when it actually happened. You need the actual certificates for that information and as I said above these can be obtained from Belfast, Dublin or Roscommon. Alternatively the marriages and births were recorded in the registers of St. James's Church in Ballymoney and Robert was buried in the family grave in the Old Churchyard in Ballymoney - see Dorothy Arthur's book.