Relationships in a Birth Registration

[Jean Price]

Good evening,

Thomas Joseph O'Reilly was born to Charles O'Reilly and Mary Anne (nee Lynch) in November 1864 in Taghart, County Cavan.
The person who registered the birth was John Reilly, uncle to the child, occupier, of Taghart.
Two questions:
1. Can I assume that John is a brother to Charles? This particular O'Reilly family has been well researched and we (the researchers) have not been aware of John.
2. What does "occupier" mean?
Thank you
Jean Price
Canterbury, New Zealand

[gaffy]

Just posting the civil birth registration for folk who like to see the information in situ:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1864/03596/2326113.pdf

There is a cluster of Reillys in Taghart South in Griffith's Valuation (local print date 1856), but no John listed.

[Elwyn Soutter]

The general categories of person who could register a birth were/are:

a) one of the parents
b) the occupier of the house in which child was born
c) the chief resident officer of the hospital or institution in which birth occurred
d) a person who was present at the birth
e) a person who had charge of the child

My understanding is that Occupier meant he regularly lived there. I have seen it defined as any person present in the dwelling where the birth occurred,  but if you didn’t live there, you would just be described as “present at birth.”

[gaffy]

There was an Edward Reilly baptised for parents John Reilly and Mary Brady of Taghart in Kingscourt RC parish on 14 May 1864, but the surname is just so prevalent in the area that it could easily be another John (eg. a son of one of the other Taghart (O')Reillys):

https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000635175#page/11/mode/1up

[aghadowey]

Thomas Joseph O'Reilly was born to Charles O'Reilly and Mary Anne (nee Lynch) in November 1864 in Taghart, County Cavan.
The person who registered the birth was John Reilly, uncle to the child, occupier, of Taghart.
Two questions:
1. Can I assume that John is a brother to Charles? This particular O'Reilly family has been well researched and we (the researchers) have not been aware of John.

The answer to question number 1 is NO. Lots of possibilities-
1. brother of Charles
2. half brother of Charles
3. great-uncle (possibly uncle of Charles or even his wife's uncle)
4. brother-in-law of Charles (either married to Charles' sister or to a brother of Charles' wife)
5. relative that lived with family and registrar thought was the child's uncle

[Jean Price]

Thank you very much everyone.

I will take it that John was living with Charles and Mary Anne at the time. And I will not try to fit him into the family tree at this stage. Thank you aghadowey for pointing out all the possibilities.

Jean Price