Ancestry Search

In search of a birth certificate for Nanny, to help out all of those who might be interested in applying for an Irish passport at some point:

On Tuesday (Oct 31) Maureen & I went to the Ancestry Branch of the National Library of Ireland, at 2 Kildare Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. (Tel 353 1 6030200; email info@nli.ie; web www.nli.ie) The very helpful gentleman there showed us how to use the index to find the civil registration district for each town and village. It is in the civil registration district where births are recorded.

We were given a list of Civil Registration Districts, by County, as well as a map of all the Civil Registration Districts. I was also given the address of the main office in Roscommon to which we can write to request certified copies of birth certificates once you have located the correct one. Applications for such can be downloaded from www.groireland.ie.

We focussed our search on Nanny (Annie Dillon) because we had received verbal confirmation from locals in Williamstown that the Dillon family had lived in Derrywode, just outside Williamstown, in the county of Galway, for many years. The civil registration district for Williamstown and Derrywode is Clifden. He suggested that we visit the General Register Office (GRO), at Joyce House, 8-11 Lombard Street East, Dublin 2 to research the birth records there. The telephone there is 353 1 635 4000 and the website is www.groireland.ie.

On Wednesday November 1 I went to the GRO. You pay 2 Euro for a general search. You may request the "Index of Births" in 5 year increments according to the census. Each year's birth records are indexed in a large volume divided into quarters; thus for each year you must look in four separate quarters for all the births. Names are listed alphabetically by last name. I looked up Dillon, then looked for all Annes or Annies that were registered. Ultimately I searched all the records from 1894 through 1900. I found 19 Annes or Annies, but none in Clifden. Staying in the same geographical area as Williamstown (when I could determine that) I requested copies of 4 birth certificates. Only when you see the copy of the birth certificate can you determine the names of the father and mother and the actual town in which they lived. None of the four I requested were a match for what we know. (You can request up to 5 birth certificate copies in one day; if you want more than that, they will send them to you by mail. Each certificate copy costs 4 Euro.) If you are lucky enough to find the birth certificate of the person you are searching for, you can go downstairs to the General Register Office on the first floor and obtain a certified copy.

I will be happy to scan and send any of the documents I did collect if you want to see them; just let me know

What we know:
We know that Edmund Dillon and Mary or Margaret Nee Dillon had 7 children: Patrick, Michael, Tom, Mary, Margaret, Norah and Annie. We are not certain of Annie's year of birth; we have long assumed that it was 1896.

After striking out on all my searches the woman in the research room admitted that Nanny's birth may never have been recorded with the government. This was very common in those days. IN THAT CASE WE WOULD NEED PARISH RECORDS OF THE CHURCH HER FAMILY ATTENDED IN ORDER TO RECEIVE PROOF OF BIRTH. I do not have the information on the parish records, but I think someone else who was in Williamstown with us may have written down the name or contact info of the person who might have those........ Anyone?????

I did not have time to do the same type of search for Pop's records. What we think we know about him is that he was born to Thomas Madden and Bridget Burke Madden. His siblings were Tom and Jack. Tom had two children - Joseph and Lily. Jack had two children - John and Joe. We believe he was born in Leeds, which is in County Clare. Ennistymon (or Ennistimon) is the civil registration district for his area, and Kilfarboy is his civil parish. I do not have the years that would need to be searched, but I think we'd have to start as far back as 1888 or so.

One can also research the Census records, which we did not do. In that case we would look for the 1901 - 1911 Census for Derrywode to see who was recorded. But that would only tell us that the family lived in Derrywode, and we felt we already knew that.

After I was out of time a very nice gentleman who had overheard my requests for assistance came to me to tell me that there is an alternative to the method I was using. In the Dublin City Library & Archives, at 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2, the records I was researching are on microfiche, and the search is free. That office is open from Monday - Thursday from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm and on Friday and Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

So..... no documents to show for our research. Now we know why people pay thousands of euros to have professionals do this for them!
love, kathleen