Searching for my Grandmother's home and birth certificate

Sometimes mistakes get made in recording births, deaths & marriages in the on-line indexes. Names get mis-spelled and perhaps the odd entry is overlooked. So you could write to GRO Roscommon, enclosing a photocopy of the baptism and ask them to look up the original registers to see if the birth is there.

If it’s not there, there’s a couple of possible explanations. One is that the birth was in a different place to the baptism. That’s not very common with RC births because baptism normally follows within a few days of the birth, but it can happen. If the family were travelling or if the mother had gone to visit someone when she gave birth. And with other denominations (you haven’t said what denomination this family were) baptism can be 6 months later. I recently came across some Presbyterian records where a whole family was baptised at the same time and the children were aged 4 to 16. So one baptism was 16 years after the birth. (Rare for RC, but it happened with other denominations). And with RC you get adult baptisms when someone changes denomination, usually in anticipation of marriage. So there the baptism date will obviously be 20 years or more after the birth.

Another possibility is that the birth was registered after the baptism. There was a penalty for not registering a birth within the specified period (6 weeks or something like that). But if you lived in a rural area it was often a bit of a journey to the local registrar and people sometimes didn’t get around to it for months. Then, instead of giving the real date of birth, and incurring a financial penalty, they just changed the child’s date of birth to one within the past week or so. So you might find a child “born” 6 months after it was baptised. The Registrar would have been none the wiser. So check after the baptism date as well as before it.

Finally there is the possibility that the birth just wasn’t registered at all. Nowadays you need to register a birth to qualify for certain state benefits, so all births are likely to be registered, but there were none in the 1800s and so little urgency in registering a birth. Some were never registered.

Peggy:

Elwyn provided you with a number of suggestions and explanations regarding why the civil birth record is not available. Can you provide your grandmother's name? We can take a look. Also, you are in a border area and possibly the family lived in Co. Roscommon.

Roger McDonnell

Thank you so much, each of you!

Our grandmother was Ellen Donlon, born July 4, 1896. She was baptized in the parish church at Kilpegnet, July 12 1896, by Rev M. Coogan, CC.  Sponsors were John Donlon and Mary Egan.  

A lovely lady named "Julie" at "HSE" has been searching in the government files with no luck, so your ideas and support are really welcome.

We are hoping to apply to register "foreign birth" and obtain citizenship in Ireland, so documentation is really important. That I can still say some of the prayers my grandmother taught me in Gaelic is no proof, I'm afraid!

Thank you so much!

Peggy

Peggy:

Well it was worth a try but I did not find the record. I assume her parents were Michael and Mary and they lived in Curraghmulmurry townland in Ballynakill civil parish? The only two records I located were on the same page. Both shown as Ellen Donelon and they were registered in October 1896. The parents of one of the Ellens were Michael and Bridget.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_retur…

Roger

If I'm looking at the correct transcript on RootsIreland the parents to your Ellen/ Eleonora were Michael Donnelan & Bridget Trears, date of birth and baptism match the details you have. Place of birth is given as 'Curragh' - likely a reference to Curraghmulmurry , and the parish is Glinsk aka Kilbegnet and Dunamon etc

There's a matching civil birth as a late registration in Glenamaddy District on the 10th October, parents Michael Donelan and Bridget Trears, residence and place of birth 'Curragh' (entry 408).

EDIT ; just realized that's the same register page that Roger just linked...

is this your 'Donlan' family at Curraghmulmurry townland on the 1901 census with parents Michael & Mary, also in the household is a Bridget 'Trayers',Mary's mother

There's also a good match for Mary/Maria's birth in 1895, parents Michael Donnelan & Bridget Trears, and place of birth Curragh... wonder if there was a mix up with the names - the informants for the births were Michael & Bridget (snr), and both signed with their mark

I suspect that Michael's wife was actually born Bridget but went by the the name Mary.,,. as there's a marriage that fits very well of a Michael Donlon and Bridget Trayers in Glynsk Chapel on the 24th February 1894, and the bride's residence is Curragh

Dear Friends,  I am overwhelmed at the support you've offered, and the expertise you share!  I will share your findings with "Julie" and my siblings as well.   Thank you so much!  I'll keep you informed of my progress.  Have a good weekend, one and all!

Dear Friends, I can hardly believe it, but when I came home from Mass last evening, what was in my mailbox but my Nana's "long form" birth record!   And most amazing, copied on the bottom of the official form, was the page YOU had forwarded to me, with the most likely hand written registry entry!   You are an amazing community, caring efficient and effective, clearly filled with love for your community and us in the Irish diaspora.         Now, the only remaining documentation I need is easily obtainable here in the USA.      Thank you from the bottom of my heart!   I look forward to getting to know you better through this website, and then hopefully, meeting some of you in person in the summer of 2018.    Thank you so much!!!

Peggy:

All the best!

Roger