Hi All,
Glad to have found this board and thanks to all for providing valuable insight -- I only learned of my eligibility for Irish citizenship recently and am at the document-gathering phase in order to apply to join the FBR. I have a background in research and information management, so it is actually a good project for me to undertake for the next few years
So far I have gathered/ordered:
-My birth certificate (extra copy, as it will clearly be in limbo for years)
-My marriage certificate
-My parents' marriage certificate (Canada, different province)
-My father's birth certificate (UK)
-My father's death certificate (Canada, separate province)
-My grandparents' marriage certificate (UK)
-My grandmother's death certificate (UK)
-My grandmother's birth certificate -- this is where the first hurdle arises.
Her birth (1896) doesn't appear in the civil register. I combed every database, free and subscription-based, to no avail. Went back and forth with the GRO, no luck. I thought I had hit an impasse but luckily found a scan of a baptism certificate through a cousin, and was able to order an official copy through the diocesan archives. Phew! Now I have to apply for a 'late registration', which involves submitting the following documents to the GRO in Roscommon (I have to say they were so helpful and a pleasure to speak with):
-Grandmother's baptism certificate
-Proof of her parents' marriage (in the civil registry, thankfully)
-Her death certificate
-Written attestations completed and signed before a commissioner of oaths.
I hope to have everything ready to submit by the end of summer and then ride out the long wait. I have to say it's been interesting -- I am not a genealogy buff myself but it's given me an interesting window into a side of my family I knew very little about. My dad's childhood wasn't great and he didn't speak much of it so I am putting together the pieces.
