Robert Brown birth certificate - 2 April 1861. Help.

[aghadowey]

Here's Robert Brown in 1901 census aged 39 years- in 1911 he was 54 years old!
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/No__4_Urban__West_Ward/St__Columbs_Wells/1537754

[Forfarian]

Do marriage certificates also apply to the 1864 date in Ireland?

No. Marriage registrations go back to 1845.

However I have looked through the marriages on the GRONI web site https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/ and did not find any involving a James Brown and a bride with surname McKeenichan or similar. So perhaps James and Catherine were married in one of the counties which are now in the Republic of Ireland.

I note from the census that Robert was Roman Catholic. I understand that the National Archives of Ireland have recently put online a large quantity of Roman Catholic baptism records so it might be worth taking a look at those. I have not looked at this resource myself so I don't know how it is organised, how comprehensive it is, and how easy to search.

[aghadowey]

Do marriage certificates also apply to the 1864 date in Ireland?

No. Marriage registrations go back to 1845.
...

This is only partly correct. Civil registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 but it wasn't until 1864 that full registration, including Catholic ones, was introduced.
The online civil registration index (covering all of Ireland until 1921) can be searched here for free- search for bride and groom separately then cross-reference for match-
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
There are also some extracted marriages (mostly from civil registration) here-
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1584964

The Catholic Parish registers are very easy to search- once you know the parish-
http://registers.nli.ie/#home_map

If Robert was born in Londonderry I wouldn't rule out searching in Donegal or even Tyrone for baptisms and marriages.

Finally, the bride's name. 'McKeenichan' is not a surname that seems to appear in the civil registration index so I suspect it's a phonetic spelling of an Irish name as heard by a Scottish person. The first part is likely 'Mc' but the next part could be Que, etc.

[aghadowey]

See this topic for ideas on what Catherine's surname might be- lots of possible variations there:
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=727437.0;topicseen

[Forfarian]

This is only partly correct. Civil registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 but it wasn't until 1864 that full registration, including Catholic ones, was introduced.

I stand corrected, thank you.

[DecimaHQ]

Do marriage certificates also apply to the 1864 date in Ireland?

No. Marriage registrations go back to 1845.

However I have looked through the marriages on the GRONI web site https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/ and did not find any involving a James Brown and a bride with surname McKeenichan or similar. So perhaps James and Catherine were married in one of the counties which are now in the Republic of Ireland.

I note from the census that Robert was Roman Catholic. I understand that the National Archives of Ireland have recently put online a large quantity of Roman Catholic baptism records so it might be worth taking a look at those. I have not looked at this resource myself so I don't know how it is organised, how comprehensive it is, and how easy to search.

Thank you very much for your advice and links - it's more than appreciated. I shall have a browse through the NAI.

[DecimaHQ]

Do marriage certificates also apply to the 1864 date in Ireland?

No. Marriage registrations go back to 1845.
...

This is only partly correct. Civil registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 but it wasn't until 1864 that full registration, including Catholic ones, was introduced.
The online civil registration index (covering all of Ireland until 1921) can be searched here for free- search for bride and groom separately then cross-reference for match-
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
There are also some extracted marriages (mostly from civil registration) here-
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1584964

The Catholic Parish registers are very easy to search- once you know the parish-
http://registers.nli.ie/#home_map

If Robert was born in Londonderry I wouldn't rule out searching in Donegal or even Tyrone for baptisms and marriages.

Finally, the bride's name. 'McKeenichan' is not a surname that seems to appear in the civil registration index so I suspect it's a phonetic spelling of an Irish name as heard by a Scottish person. The first part is likely 'Mc' but the next part could be Que, etc.

Thanks so much for all of this information and the enclosed links. I'm not terribly experienced in genealogy research so I really appreciate advice such as this. McKeenichan is such a strange name and I'm inclined to agree that it's a phonetic spelling. I will have a browse through the above links.

Thanks everyone!