Lived in Scotland, born in Ireland

[Denby1]

I'm looking for help in locating where in Ireland my great-grandfather was born. He appears on the Scottish census for the first time in 1881. He was married in a Roman Catholic church in 1888 and lived the rest of his life in Edinburgh. All census entries only state 'Ireland' as his birthplace.

I would be grateful if anyone has any ideas, what resources I could pursue to help me in my quest.

Many thanks,
Denby

[Elmca]

Hi Denby, I have many Irish ancestors and I can tell you that it has been a long search finding my family!  Some were Catholic and some Presbyterian so it's been a mixed bag of info!  Scotlands People now have RC births and baptisms and I found that invaluable in finding info about my family - for instance I presumed that my gg-gmother came to Scotland with her intended husband in the 1840's but I just found (thanks to baptism records for their children) that she came with her whole family (grandparents/siblings were godparents) and I have managed to find out that my ggg-gfather lived until the ripe old age of 96 when he died in Edinburgh whereas I thought I would never know any more about that side of the family - I was brought up in Edinburgh and had no idea of the family history there was so close to where I lived.  I was lucky enough to find the families on the 1851 census and it stated that they came from Belfast and Roscommon which made me jump for joy at finding out a location, however, subsequent census returns seem to only say Ireland.  For other ancestors, the date and place of the parents marriage in Ireland which was put on the birth certificate of their children, has led me to their origins.  I also found a birth on LDS FAmilysearch for my family in Roscommon and it mentioned the town of birth also.  If you have his parents names from his death certificate then perhaps that will be a lead. Good luck - I hope this helps in some way

[Denby1]

Thanks for your prompt reply. I think I need to spend some time in Edinburgh and crawling through the IGI!
Denby

[MonicaL]

Hi Denby

There is one possibility for research but I warn you, it won't be easy! Catholic marriage registers note the bride and groom's places of births. The church you are baptised at becomes the custodian of your catholic life records (baptism & marriage). In order to do this, when you marry, a note is sent to the church where you were baptised. But the RC church as you know, are not great at releasing records! As Elmca says in the last post, some RC baptism have recently been added to SP. Marriage I believe will follow at some point.

Have a look at this link at NAS regarding the RC archives www.nas.gov.uk/recordKeeping/churchRecords.asp

Worth a try 

Monica

[Hibee]

Hi Denby

Did you look at his marriage cert on ScotlandsPeople, for deatils of his parents?

Hibee

[Elmca]

 Hi Monica, when did the RC registers start to state the bride and grooms place of birth? My gg-gp married in 1849 but it does not tell me anything more than their names.  Or - do you think there could be more information somewhere?!!  I was told that I was very lucky to find the catholic marriage in the first place as so few existed from that time.  Fortunately I do now have further info but it has taken me long enough to find it!!  Denby you should get your gg-gp's info from your g-gf's marriage or death cert.

Elaine

[MonicaL]

Not sure of the dates and I am sure as with all registers there will be variances. Need to ask I do  As with all records, the information is more minimal the further back you go. Hopefully with an 1880s marriage there may have been more information on the register 

The reason marriages were/are recorded this way, I believe is down to the fact that you only marry once if you are a Catholic (unless you are widowed or the marriage is annuled) and it is a way of maintaing records of this rite. I was shocked recently to find that, unbeknown to me, my London marriage is held on record at the church I was baptised at in Mexico City!

Monica 

[Denby1]

I’ve looked for the Roman Catholic births and baptisms on ScotlandsPeople, but without success. I look forward to marriage records appearing at some stage.
My great grandfather’s parents do appear on his marriage and death certificates, but I haven’t been able to find them on the IGI.
I may have better luck at the NAS. According to their records (thanks Monica) they have the Roman Catholic Marriage Registers I am interested in.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Denby
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Denby the Catholic records are available on scotlandspeople now.