Foreign Birth Registration - Completeness of Documents

I hope to apply for addition to the Foreign Birth Register based on my paternal grandmother's birth in Ireland. I already have the documents tracing her to me (her marriage certificate, my father's birth and marriage certificates, my birth certificate) but the most basic one is missing: grandmother's birth certificate.

She was born to a farm family in County Donegal in the late 1800s. The family did register a female child birth later but with no name. The daughter's name is included in the family's entry in the 1901 Ireland census. Her marriage certificate to my father in Massachusetts lists her parents' names and her birth in Ireland. My dad's birth certificate lists her maiden name and birthplace of Ireland. Her death certificate states her birthplace as Ireland.

So what I have here is proof of ancestry to a virtual certainty, but NOT the actual document that clearly would satisfy the Irish authorities.

Does anyone know if Ireland is willing to consider documented facts as a substitute for the particular required certificate? I gather it's common knowledge that record keeping in those days––especially among rural families--was not perfectly accurate. I would hate to start the process if this looks to be a likely failure.

Thanks!

orojim wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 11, 2019 6:59 pm

Does anyone know if Ireland is willing to consider documented facts as a substitute for the particular required certificate?

You won't be able to apply for FBR without your grandmother's birth certificate - DFA won't accept any other evidence. However, your next step should be to use that evidence to make a 'late registration' of her birth. I've been through this process and the main thing it requires is her baptism certificate. If one doesn't exist, you need to get one from the current priest of her parish. To do this, you basically need to persuade that priest that your Grandmother would have been baptised in his church. In my case, I managed to find my grandad's entry in the baptism register in some online parish records, on the National Library of Ireland website. This was enough to persuade the priest to write up a certificate for someone who was born 150 years ago! Once you've got this, you make the 'late registration' application with the General Registration Office - it only took a few weeks and you can then get a brand new birth certificate for your grandmother.

Look at this thread for more discussion on a similar case to yours:

ireland/foreign-birth-registration-gran ... l#p1676359