Anne,
Irish Civil registration of births began in 1864. You already have names of parents and child, birthdate, and town. You would expect to find in addition:
--townland or more specific address
--occupation of father
--name of informant who registered birth (often the father)
--whether informant could sign his/her own name (if not, his "mark" is recorded)
Also you would confirm the information that you already have.
I think it would be worth it, you can order a research copy of the birth record from Roscommon GRO for 6 euros.--Bernie
I'm researching my ancestors who lived in County Tyrone in the late 1800s. Both the Republic of Ireland General Register Office (GRO) and the Northern Ireland GRO can provide records for the 6 counties of Northern Ireland for the period 1864-1921. I ordered records about a month ago, and this is what I learned:
There are two cheaper ways to get birth, marriage, death records that I wasn't initially aware of. The Belfast (Northern Ireland) GRO will provide a record for 5.50 pounds when you can provide "full particulars including the register entry number and date of registration the fee will be £ 5.50. We regret this facility is not available online."
However I applied online and supplied the particulars from the birth index (1884 q2 vol 3 p 125) and I was charged £ 5.50 plus perhaps a little extra for postage, which came to $11.56. They processed my order about 2 days after my request (according to my credit card statement) and it was postmarked the next day. After about 10 days total I received a large official looking certificate with a "seal" and a what looked like a xerox copy of the birth register in the middle, just like I would have made myself from the microfilm.
The second time I tried to order online from the Belfast GRO, I supplied the same volume and page information, but they charged my card the full amont of ten pounds, which came to $21.98. Maybe I was just lucky the first time.
The mail order office of the Republic of Ireland GRO is in Roscommon. They do not have a way to order records online. If you do not need an official certificate, they will provide a photcopy for 6 euros. It took about 3 weeks from the time I mailed my request form until I received my photocopy. It was just a standard photocopy on a piece of normal paper, but it was all I needed. They charged me 4 euros only for some reason, which came to $5.10
I hope this information is helpful to someone. Here are the links for the two GROs.--Bernie
http://www.groireland.ie/http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm 