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Civil Registration of non-catholic marriages started in Ireland, north and south, on 1 April 1845.  The commencement date for registration of births, deaths and catholic marriages was 1 January 1864.  A full NI birth, marriage or death certificate cost £12 from GRONI, but there are a number of cheaper options available.

The best option is to visit GRONI in Chichester Street, Belfast and pay £12 for a full day’s “index search” which must be booked several weeks in advance.  This entitles you unrestricted access to computerised indexes and to 4 “look ups” of the actual registers.  Any additional look ups are then charged at £3 each.  These provide all the details recorded and included on the full price certificate.  I would recommend doing your pre 1921 birth and death searches on the LDS website first and taking a list of references to check with you.  At GRONI the marriage and post 1922 indexes are excellent and very easily searched, while the earlier birth and death entries – although computerised – are less convenient.

You can order a transcript of the details on a marriage certificate by phone from the Registrar’s Office at the relevant District Council for £3 or £4 plus postage if you know the names of the bride and groom and the exact date and place of marriage (Belfast City Council don't provide this service).  These details are available from the Emeraldancestors.com online subscription database and look ups are often offered on this site by people with subscriptions.

You can search for all NI registration certificate references 1845-1921 online at the LDS Pilot Site

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=collectionDetails;t=searchable;c=1408347

A search on this site will give you the name, registration district, year, quarter (if any), volume and page number taken from a microfilm of GRONI’s own index.  This information is sufficient to allow you to order a certificate from GRONI for £6 (DO NOT TELL THEM you got the above details from the LDS website or they will charge you £12!!).  Certificates normally arrive at UK addresses within 1-2 weeks.

http://www.groni.gov.uk/index/order_certificates.htm

County Antrim and Down certificate details (including Belfast) may be available online from AncestryIreland.com for £4 which is a slightly cheaper option, but doesn't provide the official document.

http://www.ancestryireland.com/database.php?filename=db_QUIS

Pre 1921 certificates for all parts of Ireland are also available from the Republic of Ireland GRO in Co Roscommon.  They offer a cut price “research certificate” which is uncertified and is an actual photocopy of the original registration entry.  This costs €6 plus postage  (or €4 plus postage with the full reference from the LDS site) and can only be paid for in cash or by sending you credit card details in the post, which many people consider to be a security risk.  Also the service can take around 4 weeks.  GROI also provide a public search room in Lower Abbey Street, Dublin, but the indexes are quite antiquated and it’s a good idea to do your searching on the LDS site prior to visiting.

http://www.groireland.ie/apply_for_a_cert.htm

Can anyone help me find my gt gt grandmother's date/place of death?  Her name was Annie Hamilton and in 1901 census she was living in Queen Anne Mansions, Westminster.  She was born Annie Moore in 1846 in Wellbrook, Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland, married to Gustavus Hamilton, a Liverpool architect who died in 1889, and she was the translator of various academic books mainly on Italian subjects.

From her correspondence it's clear she travelled widely in England, Ireland and the continent so I have no idea where she died.  The last permanent address I have for her is in London so I suppose it's the best place to start.

ANY suggestions/assistance gratefully received.

Can anybody help with the groom's occupation from a 1854 marriage certificate please?  His father was a tenant farmer and he himself was a shoemaker in later life if that helps but I'm afraid I haven't a clue what this says. 

He lived in a small village in Northern Ireland so I expect industrial occupations are out but any likely suggestions will be much appreciated.

This is a posting I made on another site which I thought might be useful to Rootschatters. 

It attempts to explain the shifting CoI parishes within the Civil Parish of Shankill (Belfast).  The parish name on civil records for all marriages etc in these churches will be "Shankill", but Church records will use the religious parish name (e.g. St Anne's or St Mark's) causing some confusion.  It should also help trace likely churches to search if you know where your ancestors lived in Belfast.  Remember until 1870 the CoI was the established church and many members of other religions can be found in their records.

"Shankill is the name of the civil parish in Co Antrim where the town of Belfast began.  It covers the city centre and practically all the city west of the Lagan - east Belfast is mostly in the civil parishes of Knockbreda and Holywood.  Other civil parishes within the urban area of Belfast are Carnmoney, Derryaghy, Drumbeg and Drumbo.

There is a separate civil parish in the Lurgan area of Co Armagh named Shankill which includes neighbouring parts of Co Down but is not connected to the Belfast Shankill.

St Anne’s Cathedral is the successor to the original parish church, which I understand was original located close to the old graveyard on the Shankill Road.  The parish church moved to Donegall Street in the 1770s.  St George’s church is the successor of a chapel under the jurisdiction of St Anne's parish which stood at the ford of Belfast in ancient times and became a separate church early in the development of the town, known as “the Corporation Church” as it was used for civic functions in the C17th and C18th.  The old civil parish now contains 26 Church of Ireland parishes, several with more than 1 functioning church.  The main church in each current parish is marked with an asterisk in the list below. 

The Churches, with date of separation from the old parish of Shankill are as follows:-

   *   St Anne's   Donegall St
1811   *   St George's   High St
1833      Christchurch   College Sq North
1839   *   St Mary Magdalene's   Donegall Pass
1839   *   St Matthew's   Woodvale Rd
1843   *   Holy Trinity   Oldpark Rd formerly Clifton St
1851   *   St Paul's   York St
1856   *   St Mark's   Ligoniel Rd
1859   *   St John the Baptist   Stewartstown Rd
1863      St Luke's   Northumberland St
1869   *   St Stephen's   Millfield
1870      St Andrew's   Hope St
1870   *   St Thomas's   Lisburn Rd
1871      St James's   Antrim Rd
1872      St Philip's   Grosvenor Rd
1892      St Barnabas'   Duncairn Gardens
1892      St Matthias's   Glen Road
1894   *   St John's   Malone Rd
1895      St Aidans   Blyth St
1898   *   All Saints'   University St
1898   *   St Mary's   Crumlin Rd
1899   *   St Michael's   Craven St
1900   *   St Peter's   Antrim Rd
1901   *   St Nicholas's   Lisburn Rd
1908   *   St Colman’s   Church Avenue, Dunmurry
1912      Holy Redeemer   Riga St
1929   *   St Bartholomew's   Stranmillis Rd
1929      St Saviour's   Wilton St
1929   *   St Simon's   Donegall Rd
1932   *   St Polycarp's   Lisburn Rd
1944   *   St Katherine's   Dunlambert Park
1958      St Silas's   Cliftonville Rd
Bef 1961   *   St John’s   Shore Road
1961   *   Epiphany   Sicily Park
1962   *   St Columba's   Ballygomartin Rd
1963      Immanuel   Ardoyne Rd
1963      St Ninian's   Whitewell Rd
1964   *   St Hilda’s   Seymour Hill
1982   *   St Andrew's   Forth River Rd

Demographic shifts in Belfast since the start of “the troubles” have lead to the closure of several churches and the merging of some into grouped parishes.  St Matthias’s became a Roman Catholic church after closing as a Church of Ireland in 1970.  St Barnabas’s was merged with St Paul’s in 1992 and subsequently demolished.  Christchurch merged with St Stephen’s and closed in 1993.  The church has been converted into a library for the neighbouring Royal Belfast Academical Institution (“Inst”).  St Silas’s also closed in the 1990’s and the parish was merged with Holy Trinity.  The original Holy Trinity Church was destroyed in the Blitz in 1941 and rebuilt in it’s new location.  Holy Redeemer closed in 1995 and this parish was merged with St Mary’s.  The original St Andrew’s was on the site of the car park behind Great Victoria Street Railway station and closed before a new congregation was formed in Glencairn, bearing the same name but created out of part of the parish of St Mark’s.  St Saviour’s merged with St Luke’s which closed in 2006 and is being converted into a cross community facility still under the Church of Ireland within the parish of St Stephen’s.  St Philip’s merged with St Simon’s and is also closed.

All these parishes/churches are in the parish of Shankill for purposes of civil registration."