When Did Civil Registration Begin In Ireland?

Civil Registration of births, marriages and deaths began in England in 1837 but they did not start in Ireland until 1864. Non-Catholic marriages were registered from a little earlier – from 1845 onwards.

The records are now held in two different places because of the division of Ireland into Northern Ireland and Eire. Records up to 1922 are held in the General Register Office in Dublin. After that date, it holds copies of records in Northern Ireland. 1922 is a significant date because it was then that most of the Irish records were destroyed when the Public Record Office was burned down.

In Belfast, a separate register office holds the BMD records from Northern Ireland from 1922 onwards and copies of indexes of earlier events. After 1922, the laws on registration of events such as stillbirth, adoption and illegitimacy were different in Northern and Southern Ireland, so both keep their own different records.

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