The civil registration of deaths commenced in Ireland on 01 January 1864 following the passing of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Ireland) Act in 1863.[1] For more information about the introduction of civil registration in Ireland and the Registration Districts used to administer them, see here.
Contents of an Irish civil death record
At its commencement, the information provided in the civil death registrations was quite scanty although through time, the required information required has increased. An Irish civil death record, or civil death registration contains the following information items:
Date and place of death
The 1863 Act stipulated that notice had to be given of a death within 7 days and that the registration of the death was to be completed within 14 days. Certainly in the earlier years of civil registration, the date of death is more likely to be correct than the date of birth because deaths had to be registered within a much shorter time period. The death was to be registered in the district in which it occurred. If you are having difficulties finding a death registration in the place where you would expect it, try broadening your search area. The person may have been out of their usual area for work or visiting or may have been in an institution such as a hospital, the workhouse, the asylum or gaol. In the example provided here, entry number 65 was for Mary Devlin, who died on 19 August 1872 at the townland of Drumshanbo, a townland in the civil parish of Kildress, County Tyrone. Townland maps may be found at Irish Townlands and at the Placenames Database of Ireland.
In instances where death occurred in an institution such as a workhouse, a hospital, asylum, etc, sometimes no further information is provided about the deceased’s previous place of residence while in other cases, the registration will record their usual place of residence. Where no further information is supplied about previous residences and where no other family members are recorded on the death record, it can be difficult to verify if this is indeed your ancestor.
Name and surname
In most cases, married or widowed women were referred to by their married name. As with all Irish records searches, names may be spelled in a variety of ways and sometimes with or without Mac and O prefixes. In the case of children born alive and who lived only for a short period of time, they may not have been given a forename. In these cases, often the birth and death was registered on the same day.
Condition
This is useful in determining if a partner is still alive or provides a window in which the death of a spouse occurred; spinster or bachelor means that the deceased was unmarried; widow or widower means that the deceased had been married but their spouse pre-deceased them; married means that the spouse of the deceased is still alive. Occasionally, there was misunderstanding about this terminology and you will find a widowed person erroneously recorded as single.
Age at last birthday
Take the ages with a pinch of salt. As strange as it may seem to us today, even after the commencement of civil registration of births, many people did not know their exact age. There can be some wide variations when comparing different records for the same person. A recent piece of research conducted on a County Sligo family showed that the patriarch William Nairn was born Abt. 1826 according to his marriage, Abt. 1841 according to the 1901 Census, Abt. 1830 according to his death registration and Abt. 1821 according to his headstone. This means that variations in ages in different records are far from unusual, although a range of twenty years is extreme.
Rank, profession or occupation
As may be seen from the example above, Mary Devlin was simply recorded as the wife of a labourer. In some cases however, the information is more detailed and the name of the spouse is provided. When registration commenced, married or widowed women rarely had an occupation of their own recorded other than wife of… or widow of…. It was more usual to see spinsters with an occupation such as Charlotte Fearley who was a 55-year-old needle girl. Of course, men whether married, widowed or bachelors usually had an occupation recorded.
Certified causes of death and duration of illness
At the commencement of civil registration, causes of death did not have to be provided by a medical practitioner. The duration of the illness could have been a long one lasting for a number of years or a short illness. Where the deceased had not been seen by a medic, the death registration recorded that the cause was uncertified and/or that there was no medical attendance. Where the deceased had been seen by a medical practitioner, the death registration records that the death was certified. The medical practitioner who was in attendance was required to forward a Certificate of the Cause of Death to the District Registrar within seven days using Form D.
Signature, qualification and residence of the informant
The informant was to be a person who was in attendance during the last illness of the deceased or a person who had been present at the death. It could also be the Occupier of the house or tenement in which the death occurred. The Occupier was defined as also including the Governor, Keeper, Master, Superintendent, or other chief Resident Officer of every Gaol, Prison, or House of Correction, and of every School, Reformatory, Workhouse, Hospital, Lunatic Asylum, or other Public or Charitable Institution. Anyone who found a dead new-born child was responsible for registering the death.
In the case of dead bodies found, the Coroner was responsible for registering the death. In cases where a Coroner’s Inquest was held on a dead body, the Coroner was to inform the Registrar of the findings of the Jury in writing and the Registrar was to record that the information was received from the Coroner. The 1874 Act allowed for the Coroner to authorise the burial of a body following an inquest but before the registration of the death. It also removed the requirement for issuing a medical certificate on the cause of death in cases where an inquest had been held. The person completing the registration was to sign their name but could sign with a cross if they were unable to write as shown in both the registrations above.
In some cases, the relationship to the deceased is provided, for example, sister of, son of, etc. This is particularly valuable when the surname is different and the place of residence is different as it allows for broadening out the family tree. In the example of Mary Devlin's death, the informant is Michael Mullan of Drumshanks who was present at the death. As the informant has a different townland of residence and a different surname to Mary, but he was close enough to be present at her death, it may indicate a family connection between them and this is worthy of further research. In the case of Charlotte Fearley's death however, the informant is Margaret Fearly, who lived in the same townland of Moree. Given that they share a surname and live in the same townland, Margaret and Charlotte are almost certainly related and are likely to have been living in the same house. If you are having difficulty tracking down some of your relatives, broadening out the search to look for birth, marriage and death registrations of people of the same surname in the same locality can he a useful exercise.
Marine Register book of deaths
For Irish subjects who died at sea on board a British vessel, the Captain or Commanding Officer was to make a minute in the ship’s log with sufficient information required to register the death, including the deceased’s name and the name of the vessel on which the death took place. Upon arrival in any port of the United Kingdom, a certified copy of the minute was to be sent to the Registrar General in Dublin who was to record the information in the Marine Register Book of Deaths.
Foreign Register
The death of any person born in Ireland in any foreign country, could be registered in The Foreign Register by the Registrar General. Information had to be supplied within twelve months and to be certified by the British Consul of the country or district in which the death took place.
Irish Army records
The Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Army) Act, 1879 stipulated that officers or soldiers who were Irish subjects and their families had birth, marriages and deaths registered and the information transmitted to the Registrar General of Births and Deaths in England who was to forward the information to the Registrar General in Ireland.[2]
Other additional Irish military registers
Deaths of Irish Subjects pertaining to the South African War (1898-1902) are available at Roscommon[3]. Irish NCOs and men who died in the Great War are also available at Roscommon. Records of deaths of persons born in Northern Ireland who died on war service between 1930 and 1948 – available at GRONI.
Burial of stillborn children
Although the registration of stillbirths is still not compulsory in the Republic of Ireland and registration commenced in Northern Ireland in 1961, there was a requirement in The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1874[4] to provide a medical certificate or a declaration before burial of such a child. The person who had control over burials had to be provided with a written certificate from a registered medical practitioner that the child was not born alive or a declaration that the child was not born alive or an order of the Coroner following an inquest. There is not however, a separate register for these burials.
Compilation of registers and indexes
The 1863 Act stipulated that each January, April, July and October, every District Registrar was to make a certified copy of each marriage, birth and death and forward it to the Superintendent Registrar. When each Register book was complete, it was to be sent to the Superintendent Registrar. Four times per year, the Superintendent Registrar was to send the copies to the Registrar General in Dublin. Indexes were to be compiled in each Superintendent Registrar’s office and also in the Registrar General’s office – these were to be open for searching by the general public and certified copies of entries were to be made available upon payment of a fee. Between 1864-1877, the indexes are annual, arranged alphabetically by family names. From 1878 onwards, the indexes are quarterly.
The information contained in the Death Index records are:
- Name of Deceased
- Death Date and Place
- Location/Registration District
- Age of Deceased
- Birth Year of Deceased
Where to find civil registration of death records in Ireland
The General Register Offices
In 1921, Ireland was partitioned – the six counties of Antrim, Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Down and Londonderry became Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom. Following partition, a new General Register Office was established in Belfast to manage registrations in Northern Ireland. The remaining twenty-six counties became the Irish Free State - at different times it has also been known as Eire, the Republic of Ireland or simply Ireland. Having two different jurisdictions affects where you can find the civil registration records. If you are searching online, the Irish Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has made historic copies of birth, marriage and death records for all of Ireland up to 1921 freely available on [Irish Genealogy
However, after 1921 only the records for the twenty-six counties of the Republic of Ireland are available on that website. For the six counties of Northern Ireland, records may be found on the General Register of Northern Ireland (GRONI) website and they go back to when registration commenced. Note that the records on GRONI’s website are not freely available. To search, you must set up an account and have at least one credit (50 pence) in your account. While it is free to search, there is a cost to view the records. The enhanced view costs one credit and it will provide limited information, while viewing the full record costs 5 credits (£2.50). GRONI has restrictions on downloading, copying or taking screenshots of their records but Irish Genealogy does not. The records available on these websites are historic and both have the same restrictions in terms of how recent the available online records are. It is possible to view online:
- Births more than 100 years old
- Marriages more than 75 years old
- Deaths more than 50 years old
The GRONI website is updated on a weekly basis by uploading records that fall within the above time scales, while Irish Genealogy seem to upload new records on an annual basis. As of August 2023, Irish Genealogy only has the Index Register for deaths between 1864-1871 although it is likely that the full records will be uploaded at some point in the future. Both websites provide the opportunity to purchase a copy of a particular certificate and you can also order by post.
Visiting the Registrar's office
It is possible to visit the General Register Offices in person but do check with them if there are any restrictions on opening hours and if you need to book an appointment. GRONI has terminals available at the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI) located at 2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast BT3 9HQ. Before visiting PRONI in person, please see their website for more information about registration as a visitor. Note that PRONI itself does not offer a certificate ordering service.
GRONI is located at Colby House, Stranmillis Court, Belfast BT9 5RR and their website has information about the procedure for booking an appointment at the search room. Visiting GRONI in person or using PRONI’S terminals will allow for searches of records that are not subject to the historic records restrictions mentioned above.
Ireland’s General Register Office is now located at Government Offices, Convent Road, Roscommon, F42 VX53 and their website is available for research. There is also a family research facility located at Werburgh Street, Dublin 8, D08 E277 and further information about it may be found on the same website.
There are twenty five civil registration offices in Ireland – further details may be found online. For some of these offices you can visit and order certificates, but check the website to see what services they offer.
The availability of online Irish civil registration records has transformed family history research and the provision of free to access records on the Irish Genealogy website is a terrific boon. Do however be aware that differences in spelling, poor transcription and indexing of records and unexpected variation in ages can hamper your search efforts.
Explore more about Death records in Ireland
- Republic of Ireland, Index of Burials, 1900-2019 record collection at MyHeritage
- Ireland, Deaths, 1864-1870 record collection at MyHeritage
- Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, Volume 6, 1904 - 1906 record collection at MyHeritage
- Journal of the Association for the Preservations of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, Volume 2, Part 1, 1892 - 1894 record collection at MyHeritage
- The Registers of the Church of St. Michan, Dublin, 1636 - 1700 record collection at MyHeritage
- United Kingdom, Death Index, 1980-2022 record collection at MyHeritage that contains an index of death records from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.
- Navigating Irish Birth, Marriage and Death Records webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Planning Your Irish Research Trip webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Tracing Your Immigrant Ancestor to Ireland webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Tracing Your Irish Ancestry on the MyHeritage blog
- Roots Ireland holds transcripts of a substantial number of church records and census substitutes. It also has transcripts of civil registration records in registration districts throughout Ireland. Coverage varies and the availability of records per county may be checked through the online sources page
References
- ↑ Records of birth, marriage & death. National Archives
- ↑ Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Army) Act, 1879. Irish Statute Book
- ↑ Irish General Register Office records
- ↑ Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1874. Irish Statute Book