Marriages in Ireland can be of a religious or civil nature. While the vast majority of marriages in the nineteenth and twentieth century took place in a religious setting, 40% of marriages in Ireland today are purely civil.[1] A marriage which takes place in a church or other religious building is recognised as a legal marriage, once the proper paperwork is done in advance.
The article focuses on the civil registration of marriage. However, it should be noted that in many cases, once civil registration began, there will also be a second copy of the marriage record to source from the church records, which, in the case of Roman Catholic marriages, will usually have additional information.
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Background to civil registration of marriages
Under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, provision was made in England and Wales to begin registration of all life events (birth, death, marriage), which began in 1837. A new public body, the General Register Office, was set up to manage this. This was extended to Scotland in 1855. This was part of a suite of social welfare reforms developed under the Poor Law Act (1834) in the United Kingdom.
It was always intended to create a civil registration system in Ireland but authorities met with opposition from the Catholic Church, which felt they were impinging on facets of life where they had authority. There were also concerns that a person might commit bigamy by marrying in two different religious ceremonies.[2]
The Poor Law Act (Ireland 1838) divided Ireland into 130 Poor Law Unions, each centred on a market town, approximately 10 miles squared in size. Each union was known by the name of the large town it was based in and had a workhouse to support the poor of the area. This was financed by a tax known as the poor rate. When civil registration finally began, it was decided to use these pre-existing boundaries for this purpose too. Hence, a Poor Law Union is the same area as the Registration District. The number of these districts was later expanded to 163. You can see a map of these here.
Non-Catholic marriage registration (1845)
Civil registration of marriages began in a limited fashion on 1st April 1845 with the registration of non-Catholic marriages under Irish Marriage Act (1844). This covered the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Jewish marriage. There was also provision for secular marriage in a Registry Office, but there are very few in these early years.
Part of this act involved the registration of places of public worship where marriages could legally take place. All Church of Ireland pre-existing churches were automatically registered. Presbyterian meeting houses and other religious buildings, designated as "Separate Buildings" had to be registered. Registrars had to be present at a meeting house or separate building for the marriage to be lawful. Registrars collected registers of marriages from every relevant minister every three months and submitted these quarterly returns to the Registrar General in Dublin.
1863 changes
The 1863 Act renamed Registration Districts as Superintendent Registrar's Districts (SRD). Each of these was sub-divided into Registration Districts, which themselves had sub-divisions called Dispensary Districts. It is not presently possible to search the records at these granular levels. The larger change was the registration of Catholic marriages (along with birth and deaths) meaning that all Irish people were now required to register all life events.
What is recorded on an Irish civil marriage record?
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The following details are recorded for the bride and groom on a marriage record.
- Name
- Age - note this may just say the word "full" to indicate a person was 21 years or older.
- Marital Status - spinster or bachelor for a person previously unmarried, widow or widower for those whose spouse had died.
- Address at time of marriage
- Occupation
- Name of father - officially it was to be noted if the father was alive or dead, but this did not always happen.
- Occupation of father
- Location of marriage (i.e. what church)
- Religious denomination under which the marriage took place (or Registry Office, if secular)
- Names of two witnesses present
- Signatures of the bride, groom, two witnesses, and the celebrant
Structure of records
Register books had two marriages per page for a Church of Ireland church and four for a Roman Catholic. Between 1845-1878, even though returns were made quarterly, the published books (and the subsequent microfilmed, then digitised indexes) were not divided into quarters. One book for each year of marriages was created. An entry shows:
- Individual's name
- Superintendent Registrar's District
- Volume
- Page Number
Although the books were not broken down into quarters, it is possible to figure this out. Volumes 1-5 were the March quarter, 6-10 were the June quarter, 11-15 for the September period and 16-20 for the final period of the year. Some marriages in the last days of December may be registered in the first quarter of the following year, but the record will show the correct date of marriage. These entries are not cross-referenced by the other party to the marriage in the printed format, but modern websites show matches to opposite gendered names. The Irish government website, Irishgenealogy.ie shows the couple's names linked in the index record and uses a unique reference called a Group Registration ID for each life event.
From 1878 onwards, returns were made quarterly and so, if you are searching in a book format, 5 separate checks must be made: one for each quarter and one at the back of the book for late registrations. In reality, it is very unlikely that a researcher would need to refer to the original books in person.
Clergy had the responsibility of registering a marriage. On some occasions, this administrative process failed and so it is also important to check church records as well once the two systems were in place (either from 1845 or 1864).
From the 1890s, it was possible to register life events through Irish, and this becomes more commonplace from the 1940s. Official documentation is shown in both Irish and English, so researchers outside of Ireland will have no difficulty in understanding the information.
Civil registration documents are public records in Ireland, so they can be accessed by anyone. Data protection parameters are in place on the various websites, but researchers may order even the most recent of records directly from the General Register Offices. Fees apply.
Changes following the partition of Ireland in 1922
In 1922, Ireland became independent from the United Kingdom and was officially known as the Irish Free State, until 1949 when Ireland became a republic. 6 counties in Ulster (Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone) remained part of the United Kingdom. The General Register Office of Northern Ireland (generally known as GRONI) was created for the 6 counties. The GRO of Ireland continued to maintain records for the remaining 26 counties.
Where to find these records online?
The Church of the Latter Day Saints microfilmed the index registers of the GRO in the 1950s from inception of the records up to 1958 for the Republic of Ireland (formerly the Irish Free State) and to the end of 1921 for Northern Ireland. These indexes have been reproduced on several different websites including their own.[4]
Republic of Ireland
The Irish government maintains a one-stop shop website for historical life events on Irishgenealogy.ie.[5] This site is subject to data protection parameters and updates approximately once a year to add a new year to the current data set. This site is free of charge and does not require registration to use. Searches are conducted by name, SRD and a range of years. A list of results is returned and an image linking to the full page of the marriage register is shown. As of writing, marriage records are available as follows:
- 1845-1921 Northern Ireland
- 1845-1948 Republic of Ireland
If copy records are required for marriages which took place after 1948, researchers may apply directly to the GRO by email[6] furnishing an index reference if known or the names and relevant date. Searches can be conducted if these are not known. A search for a 5 year period costs €5 and a copy record costs the same.
Northern Ireland
GRONI also maintains a database for the same years (1845-1948) for Northern Ireland, however, this website is pay per view (current fees are £1.50 for a copy record) and their terms of use strictly forbid screenshots or printing. These records were scanned from district registries rather than the collated books, so original signatures are shown. The same information up to 1921 is available for free on Irishgenealogy.ie, therefore researchers only need pay for records from 1922-1948. Records post 1948 can similarly be applied for but a certified copy must be obtained. They can be ordered online[7] at a cost of £15 per certificate.
See also
Explore more about Marriage records in Ireland
- Ireland Marriages, 1619-1898 record collection on MyHeritage
- Irish Marriages, Being an Index To the Marriages in Walker's Hibernian Magazine, 1771 To 1812, Volume 1 record collection on MyHeritage
- Irish Marriages, Being an Index To the Marriages in Walker's Hibernian Magazine, 1771 To 1812, Volume 2 record collection on MyHeritage
- Diocese of Dublin Marriages, 1634 - 1858 record collection on MyHeritage
- Planning Your Irish Research Trip webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Navigating Irish Birth, Marriage and Death Records webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- General Register Office of Northern Ireland
- GRO of Ireland
References
- ↑ Central Statistics Office of Ireland, Census 2022 results[1]
- ↑ Ó Dúill, Eileen M. & ffeary-Smyrl, Steven C. Irish Civil Registration - Where do I start? (Dublin, Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations, 2000).
- ↑ Ireland becomes first country to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. The Irish Times
- ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
- ↑ Irish Genealogy
- ↑ Email service. Search Room at the General Register Office (GRO)
- ↑ Ordering life event certificates. NIDirect