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Irish Genealogical Research | Dwight Radford

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British Columbia Death Registrations (1872-1986)

22 Sep By Leave a Comment

A valuable collection for researching Irish immigrants is the “British Columbia Death Registrations, 1872-1986.” This collection, on FamilySearch, begins in 1872 when registration began. All you have to do is put in the word “Ireland” for the birth place, and leave the name blank, to get an idea as to how many Irish were in the province.

Information on the Death Form

The death forms vary in information provided. Much depends on the time period, and what was required for a particular death. They were submitted by district registrars, and then registered by the registrar or director of Vital Statistics. The death records can include a supporting “Medical Certificate of Death,” which concerns physician or coroner information. However, this medical information was not regularly included until 1896, and not for every death until 1912. Concerning a still birth, be aware, these may have been registered as a birth a death or both.

Typically, a certificate may include all or part of the following information

  • Name, age and gender
  • Date and place of death
  • Date and place of birth
  • Cause of death
  • Marital status
  • Parent’s names
  • Name of spouse
  • Name of physician
  • Registration district name or number
  • Date and number of registration
  • Religious affiliation

How Complete are the Records?

As with civil registration anywhere, the early years can prove frustrating for the family historian. The death registers are no different in British Columbia. You often will not find a registered death because people lived great distances from the registry offices and had very little if any communication with cities and towns.

The FamilySearch Database

When using the FamilySearch database, remember there are some interesting ways to manipulate the data. You always have to be aware of spelling variations, so test several spellings such as Byrne, Bierne, Burns and then put an “O” in front. This will help you not miss anything. Another strategy would be to use the “Parent” search or the “Spouse” search. This allows you to sometimes find missing people or entries which have been incorrectly indexed.

This is an excellent database from which you can browse the 1,113,866 images or utilize the index to the 898,889 indexed records (as of 9 May 2014).

If you would like professional help with your Canadian ancestry, call us at: 385-214-0925.

Ontario Civil Registration

10 Jul By Leave a Comment

“Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913” (2,172,142)

“Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928” (3,393,366)

“Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947” (2,190,030)

I use these collections from several perspectives. The first is obviously to reconstruct missing details. Another is to pinpoint a family when I don’t have a location in Ontario. Often families moved between the censuses which can leave you at a loss as to where they were. In my Irish immigrant research, I always look at marriages and deaths for any reference to a birth place in Ireland or parent’s names.

The Ancestry website also suggests related databases to these which can supplement your research. It is always wise to consult these.

Now the birth and death databases are somewhat self-explanatory. It is the marriage database that requires some discussion. This database is actually the indexing of two organizations; Ancestry and the Genealogical Research Library in Brampton, Ontario.Ancestry furnishes an important inventory of what is on this database. The civil registration portion includes marriages 1869-1928. The period previous includes two important sources, which I use all the time in client research: District Marriage Registers (1801-1858) and Roman Catholic Marriage Registers (1828-1870).

Since there was so much cross border migration, both ways, between the Canada and the United States, databases such as these can help you solve difficult research problems in either country. Even if a record does not provide a birth place in Ireland, a place of death or marriage may help open up other resources which will list where the family was from in Ireland.

Irish Civil Registration

24 Mar By Leave a Comment

I would like to share some of my findings about Irish Civil Registration. It is the Irish Government’s registration of birth marriages and deaths. Straightforward  – not a chance. Rewarding – Oh yes!

Protestant marriages were recorded in all of Ireland from 1845. Make no mistake, you will find mixed-marriages, even if they only occurred in the clerk’s office. By the way, this is a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant.

All marriages, births and deaths were registered from 1864. I have found marriage registration to be pretty consistent. Births and deaths can be sketchy through even 1900.

Some civil registration is online at www.familysearch.org under their British Isles databases “Ireland, Births and Christenings, 1620-1881,” and “Ireland, Marriages, 1619-1898.” What these include are; Births: 1864-1881, Marriages: 1845-1870; and Deaths: 1864-70. This is only an extraction, and you will need to order the microfilm of the original from a family history center www.familysearch.org/locations or from the General Registrar’s Office in Ireland http://www.groireland.ie/

The FamilySearch database “Ireland, Civil Registration, 1845-1958” is an index to the original records. The reference gives you a district name where the event was registered, not where the family was living. You still have to order a certificate to get all the details.

Once you obtain certificates, they will give you the exact townland of residence for the people listed in the events. Now that really opens up a wide variety of fascinating records.

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