The indexes to civil registration of births, marriages and deaths for all 32 counties of Ireland
from their commencement in 1864 to 1921 and the indexes to Protestant marriages 1845-1863
as of 2008 are available on microfilm in the library at Hughes.
These 90 films have been purchased by the Society from the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints on a permanent loan basis. At the present time 72 are
available with the remaining 18 to arrive shortly. They are housed in the lower
drawers of the LDS film cabinet. The list of those still to come is in the drawer with the films.

All the indexes are arranged in alphabetical order and include the surname,
first name, name of the Registration District, volume and page number of the register
in which the entry is recorded.

The indexes are arranged alphabetically by year to the end of 1877 and
from 1903 to 1921.
From 1878 to 1902, they are divided into quarters, January-March, April-June,
July-September, October-December. The mother?s maiden name is included in the
indexes to births from 1903 onwards.

To identify the correct person, it is necessary to know the Registration District.
The Poor Law Unions were used as a Superintendent Registrar's District (SRD) and
within each SRD a Dispensary District or Registrar's District was created.
Each quarter the District Registrar sent certified copies of births, deaths
and marriages to the Superintendent who in turn sent these to the Registrar General in Dublin.
These records were in turn indexed for the whole country and made available to the public.
Thus, knowing the Poor Law Union will identify the correct registration district.

How does one find the Poor Law Union? If one knows the townland or parish in which
their ancestor lived, there are two books in the library that they can consult.
These are General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies
of Ireland based on the Census of Ireland for 1851 (R9/10/01) and Townlands in
Poor Law Unions (R7/94/03).
Once an ancestor is identified, bearing in mind that there could be many with the
same name in the one town and many spelling variants, the simplest way to view the
actual certificate would be to order the LDS film containing the certificate.
For details of how to purchase a photocopy of the certificate
from Ireland. See the The General Register Office of Ireland.

From your certificates you can expect the following information:-

A birth certificate will state the date and place of birth, the name given to the child, sex, also the surname, occupation and place of dwelling of the father and, after 1903, the maiden name of the mother.

A marriage certificate will state the names of the parties, age, marital status, date and place of marriage, the residence of each at the time of the marriage and the names and occupations of the fathers of both parties to the marriage and names of witnesses.

A death certificate is the least informative of these documents, merely stating date and place of death, the name, sex, age, occupation, cause of death and name of informant.