Unregistered births in Dublin

[KD146]

I have to say, in my own very large tree of at least fifteen hundred individuals, there are literally dozens and dozens of names which fail to appear in the state registrations, after 1864, under any spelling variations.

Some of them are quite crucial individuals which would nail down large parts of the tree.  But try as I might, I cannot find them.  Stretching right through from the 1860s to the 1950s.

There are also very many death registrations missing, too.

[Sinann]

So many people were born at home right up to the 50s and early 60s, unless the parents did it straight away it was forgotten, you only needed your baptism cert in school, most people didn't travel abroad so they didn't need a passport and so on.
I know a woman, when she was getting married she wanted to apply for her first passport to go on honeymoon only to discover she wasn't registered, she said the paperwork was huge, she spent an age filling in forms.

[dathai]

Recently doing a friends family tree was looking for a Kelly/Nelson marriage could'nt find it, then kept looking at the name Nelson till it dawned on me that bad handwriting could cause an N to be read as W found the marriage registered as Kelly/Wilson,upon purchasing the cert the writing was deplorable with the wifes name as Nilson which did indeed look a W.

[Oliverd]

It wasn't just birth as my late Aunt married in 1970's and was only 30 years later she realised State had no record of her marraige.

A different Aunt was apparently baptised a week before she was born and a friends mother from Offaly has 3 different births all within same month.

[eadaoin]

I was told that at some stage, people didn't register births because they didn't want their kids vaccinated.
I've no idea how often this happened.

eadaoin

[tracey clarke]

Thanks - interesting reading.

Regarding baptisms would those who did not have a registered birth be more likely to have a baptism record. Would you need to be baptised to  get married?

[eadaoin]

I think most people up to 1970s or so would have been baptised, but record depenbds

Normally you'd need to be baptised in order to get married in a R.C. church .. don't know about other denominations.

And presumably not for a civil wedding.

regards eadaoin

[tmp48]

My Mum was born 1916 Dublin and her birth was not registered either. I do have her original Baptism Certificate though. I was her only proof of existance and it was accepted in England for her to get a British passport! 

[dublin1850]

Sometimes in the days of extremely high infant mortality, there are deaths registered but no birth of the same child.
Some of the pages of death registrations make terribly sad reading.