General enquiry about what birth, death, marriage details are available online

[Leon47]

I suspect that this is a question that comes up all the time, but here goes.

I have used, to good effect, irishgenealogy.ie and geni.nidirect.gov.uk/ to search for birth death and marriage information (register entries, certificates etc.) for my Northern Irish ancestors.
 
The former says:

"The years covered by the release of the historic records of Births, Marriages and Deaths are:

Births: 1864 to 1923, Marriages: 1845 to 1948, Deaths: 1871 to 1973"

The latter says "You will be able to search for death records which are over 50 years old."

So how to find details outside of those ranges? For example, how does someone find death details (registry entry or certificate) of someone who died, say, around the year 2000?

How does genealogy (at least in NI) function with these limits? How does anyone find details of someone born earlier than 1864 or who died later than 1973?

Am I missing something? Thanks.

[Sinann]

There are no death certs before 1864, if you’re lucky there might be a burial record in the parish records but I’ve never found one for any of my lot but they were RC not sure how well other denominations kept burial records.

Headstones.

For more recent info I use death notices in the newspapers and since 2006 RIP.ie which also covers Northern Ireland but I don’t know if it’s as popular there as in the RoI.
Of course that just tell you when they died, if you want a cert you have to buy it.

[aghadowey]

For Northern Ireland this site has good coverage of recent obituaries-
https://www.funeraltimes.com/death-notices

In general, usually only the Church of Ireland kept burial registers. However, since it was the State Church (also known as the Established Church) other Protestant denominations might also be buried there and these 'outsiders' are not always recorded in burial register. Not sure how common a practice it was but my local COI has also removed many headstones from the graveyard once families stopped using the plot.

[Dundee]

How does anyone find details of someone born earlier than 1864

The same way you find pre 1837 records in England and that is church records of baptisms and marriages - it is useful to know which religion your ancestors followed.

You might find this handy for research guidance.

https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-genealogy-search.html#A-Z-ChurchRecords

https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/irish-church-records.html

Catholic church records are digitised online and the major genealogy websites have some indexes which have their limitations due to both terrible handwriting and usage of latin.

https://registers.nli.ie/

This guide gives you information on the location of and access to Church of Ireland records.

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers/ParishRegisters/PARISHREGISTERS.pdf

Debra 

[aghadowey]

For Northern Ireland PRONI's Guide to Church Records shows not only what is on microfilm in Belfast (and in many cases Coleraine Library) but what might exist.
See link here-
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=753389.0

[cwatterson]

Regarding NI, while GRO NI for free only gives the most basic index info (names, date) this is still enough to check even poorly OCRed newspapers (e.g. load up obituaries in local paper for the surrounding few days) - I find this very useful as often others in the family are mentioned, even addresses, children etc.

You can also check Belfast city burial records; again these have an address. Also for cemeteries in Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough there is a portal. You can check findagrave also in case it’s there, sometimes even a headstone photo (if not you can potentially add some particulars you’ve found on the other sources once you verify/cross reference with the rest of family history details you have).

Depending on the marriage year, you can validate GRO NI marriage names/event with potential death of one or both of the married individuals, can be useful when you only have a maiden name from the earlier free records. Again the newspaper obituary may make it very clear you have the right married name, where the marriage may not be in the earlier papers.

Also who people are buried with is really useful even if you have no gravestone photo. Check the plot itself not just the individual you searched for.

[aghadowey]

You can also check Belfast city burial records; again these have an address. Also for cemeteries in Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough there is a portal. You can check findagrave also in case it’s there, sometimes even a headstone photo (if not you can potentially add some particulars you’ve found on the other sources once you verify/cross reference with the rest of family history details you have).

It helps to post links to save people from searching for sites-
https://online.belfastcity.gov.uk/find-burial-records/ (Belfast City, Dundonald & Roselawn)
https://antrimandnewtownabbey.discovereverafter.com/ (lots there so won't post them all but you can see them under 'cemetery' tab)
https://www.findagrave.com/ (since information is submitted you need to be careful as there can be dreadful errors which can totally mess up your research)
Similar to Find A Grave - limited info available for free but still useful- https://billiongraves.com/

Lots of other useful sites listed under ANTRIM RESOURCES which includes Belfast (note: some links broken but I can no longer fix them)-
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/antrim-resources-offers/

[cwatterson]

Missed linking findagrave but the others should be linked if I did the markup correctly, hopefully my post was helpful.

[Leon47]

Thank you everyone who replied. Such good information to have.

OK, for older records that information and those links are great. I'm not necessarily looking for Birth or Death Certificates - I'm happy with any information I can get - usually Birth/Death register entries.

But I'm still intrigued by more recent information not being easy to get hold of. I'm pretty sure I'm making a real beginners error here but how could I get any information about the death of someone after 1973?

For example, I have an uncle born 20/01/1910 in Belfast and I can't find any details of his death, which might be as recent as 2000 - his siblings all lived to a ripe old age.

How would I get any information about his death?

Thanks again.