Irish Genealogy website civil BMD indexes back online

Following the recent comedy of errors from the Republic of Ireland's General Register Office, whereby it uploaded a series of birth, marriage and death indexes that nearly caused the Information Commissioner's office to have a coronary over the issue of privacy, the Irish Genealogy website is once again offerings access to BMD indexes for civil registration records in the Republic of Ireland (and for Northern Ireland up to partition). The tool is available at www.irishgenealogy.ie.

Before accessing them you have to confirm that you are doing a search as facilitated by "Section 61 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004" which "provides for a member of the public to make an application to an tArd-Chláraitheoir to search the indexes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages registers." It seems an unnecessary task, but anything for a quiet life.

You are then taken to a search screen. The records available are similar to those on the Northern Irish GENI site: "The Indexes to the Civil Records of Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages date from 1864 with non-Roman Catholic Marriages recorded from 1845. The indexes to Births over 100 years old, the indexes to Marriages over 75 years old and the indexes to Deaths over 50 years old." The difference is that these are only indexes, not the digitised images from the registers as in the north.

The detail available in the indexes is outlined at http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/what-information-is-on-the-indexes-that-are-on-line. For information on how to apply for photocopies or formal certificate copies of the records, visit http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/i-want-to-get-a-copy-of-a-certificate-what-do-i-do - but do check out https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk for the pre-Partition Northern Irish entries (counties Antrim, Down, Fermanagh, Armagh, Tyrone and Londonderry), as the register images are available, and will be much cheaper.

The new indexes are not particularly user friendly, although the birth records from 1900-1914 do include mothers' maiden names, and you can search for marriages with two surnames. Note that Irish indexes beyond the stated closure periods for births and marriages on Irish Genealogy are in fact available on FamilySearch, Ancestry and FindmyPast, all the way up to 1958. Don't ask!

(With thanks to the North of Ireland Family History Society via Facebook)

Chris

For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.