Can anyone help, please-Smith Family-Dublin

[smithy12]

Looking for information re-James Smith-born 1825-Dublin and William Smith born - date unknown - Parish unknown.  Do I have to contact all parishes in Dublin to obtain details.

[Elwyn Soutter]

What denomination were they?

[smithy12]

Thanks for your reply, Elwyn.  Answering your question re my ancestors church denomination, i presume he was Roman Catholic, because James Smith my gggrandfather along with my gggrandmother left Ireland - date unknown - then went to America, San Francisco, California where they married in 1850 at the Roman Catholic Church - Mission Dolores Church. Then they came onto Australia where they raised their children and that is all i know. I realise that the gggrandfather could have been Church of Ireland but of course i don't know.

[shanew147]

"Dublin" can mean the city , suburbs or county.. so doesn't narrow down the search area, and Smith is quite a common surname... Any idea of which part of Dublin  ?

see :
 Introduction to Irish Records
 My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?   


Shane

[smithy12]

Thanks Shane for your reply also. I don't know what county/parish gggrandfather-James Smith came from in Dublin, wish i did. All it states on 2 of his children's birth certificates here in Australia, is that he was born in 1825 in Dublin. Could mean actually Dublin City, couldn't it? I don't know Ireland at all. Also, thanks very much for the link too, i'll read up on it. Oh how i wish like many other people do, that the fire in 1922 at The National Archives which destroyed most of the census information didn't happen.

[shanew147]

The fire was in the Public Records Office at the Four Courts and only destroyed some of the early census returns - others (1861,1871,1881,1891) had already been destroyed by government order - apparently during WW1.

No Catholic records were held by the PRO, but the problem is that there are quite a number of parishes spread between the city and the county, and the boundaries changed a few times for these - especially the county parishes, also with a common surname like Smith it could be difficult to work out which records apply to your family without a few more details...

Records for most of the city RC parishes, and a few west and south County Dublin parish are included on www.irishgenealogy.ie


Shane

[smithy12]

Thanks Shane again. Your info is much appreciated.  Your right, I forgot, Catholic BDM records weren't kept at PRO, kept by individual parishes. Then the rest were destroyed in WW1. Weren't the 1831, 1841 etc census kept at the PRO though, until fire destroyed it. I can't remember now which building was destroyed by fire. Anyway i'll take a look at irishgenealogy.ie again and try to narrow down the location re the name 'Smith'.  What a task when one has the name 'Smith' to research. 

[shanew147]

The census returns which were lost were those for 1821 to 1851. Records for a few small areas that were being researched in the reading rooms at the time the Four Courts were taken over survived.  I dont think any of the these cover any part of Dublin.



Shane

[smithy12]

Thanks Shane again. Problem is, that still doesn't answer my original question, re my Smith descendants who originated from Dublin.  Also will i have to contact every parish in Dublin if my search on irishgenealogy.ie proves unsuccessful.  What a nightmare to research, having the surname-Smith combined with Irish genealogy.  Nothing against any Irish people reading this post though.