Hi,
I'd really like some opinions/advice on this please:
I thought I'd order my grandfather's birth cert to see exactly where he was born in Ballymoney , I have just received a letter in the post today from them telling me that they can not find his birth, , and they have searched 5 years (they retained a fee of 5.50 to do this) , two years either side of the date I gave them.
He was born 12th July 1907 - 12th July is 100% correct, I knew my grandfather - 1907 is the date I took off his death , which was reported by his wife my grandmother. My mother thought it may have been 1906 - still if it was, they still would have found him as they searched 5 years . I have the correct Christian name for him for sure, unless he carried an assumed Christian name, and nobody knew he did -not even his wife or any of his children did -I have my mum's full birth cert.
I gave the correct parents for him, whom both my mother knew well when she was growing up, and they were definitely married long before my grandfather was born. I have their marriage.
He was not adopted to the best of my and my family's knowledge- I have a photo of his father and mother, and he's is the spitting image of his father - and I mean spitting image, they look like brothers.
The only thing which I can think of is his place of birth that I put down - Ballymoney. His parents were married there and lived there for a time, his older brother was also born there too - but later they moved to Carrickfergus where my grandfather spent most of his childhood. I know they were in Carrickfergus in 1912 for sure , when my grandfather would have been around 5 yrs old ., I've got the father and older brother signing the Ulster covenant. It is also where my g grandparents lived during the 40's, and died there - my mum used to visit them there.
My grandfather always said to me, and everyone else including my grandmother that he was born in Ballymoney. I asked my mum is she 100% 100% sure he was born in Ballymoney before I ordered the cert a few weeks ago - and she said yes. So I put down that as his place as birth,.I know it was where his older brother was definitely born t , so I too thought my grandfather was born there too as he himself had always said to us.
My question is; if they found another birth say in Carrickfergus with
exactly the same parents (his father does have an unusual Christian name),with
exactly the same birth date,
all the exact details, except for birth place - would they have sent that to me? or advised me that they found one but it's in Carrickfergus, and does not match my given birth place . Or would they only have looked at the ones in Ballymoney?
(I'm now really kicking myself that I did not put "I think in Ballymoney , or it maybe Carrickfergus "
- like I did with my grandmother's birth application, I put
I think in Broughshane,or around there somewhere. I got the right one off them for her by doing that - I really do know better than this - that some people do not know where they were born - arggh! But this one really slipped me up)
Also,how common over there is it for births not to be registered ? I'm keeping all options open at the moment, as my grandfather himself, and all my family were really adamant that he was born in Ballymoney like I know his older brothers were.
Thank's
