Thread: Ireland 1930 and later

I am trying to trace my biological family. They are from Ireland, and there are a few confusions:



My mother has registered her other children with a third surname - different to the name she was given at birth and the name she married into. She was only 18 when she married so it would not have been because of a previous marriage.



On her birth certificate, her mother is listed with the exact same name, but lists no father which seems odd for Catholic Ireland. She was a domestic servant, we are not sure if this is a reason at all.



We think that perhaps she was put into care, as that would explain the third surname and there being no father on the birth certificate perhaps?



Any suggestions on how to get any further with this? I am hesitant to publish names publicly at this stage.



My mother was born in 1938 so the problem I am having is that it is so modern, and Irish records are harder to access - I have addresses at birth, and at the time of marriage, but cannot work out how to use these. If it was in England I could have used directories.

Yes Irish records are difficult to find but don't despair. The problem you are going to face is the access to records that are not yet 100 years old. I've always found it easier to trace a dead person than a living one.

Irish BMD indexes are available (for free) at familysearch.org.

The 1911 census is also available for free, but this may be too far back to be of any use at present.

It also depends on which county you are looking at. Co Wexford for example is very poor with records. With any research in Ireland your first port of call should be Dublin, the national library has a lot of indexes and of course voters registers will be invaluable.

I've been to Dublin twice in the last 12 months and found the resident genealogist at the national archives very helpful as with the staff at the national library and general register office.

Another under used source is newspaper announcements for BMD's.

I've had many successes at the newspaper library in Colindale, NW London.

The best book on Irish research I can reccommend is Tracing Your Irish Ancestors by John Grenham.



Happy hunting



Steve Kirby