IRELAND’S Registration Districts (1800s)
What are they?
All vital events in Ireland are registered in the Registration District where it took place. A point of note, marriages, while an ancestor’s town of origin may be in one Registrar’s District, the local Catholic parish church, even though it might a short distance from his or her’s residence, might well be in a different Registrar’s District. When searching for marriages, keep this in mind.
How do I find which Registration District?
General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland.
at: http://www.thecore.com/seanruad/
(the former SeanRaud page domain registration was apparently lost and a commercial company snapped it it and uses it to (or attempt to) “dupe” people looking for the district search engine. Do not go there or purchase anything- We are not commanding but if you do, you encourage other dishonest Web creators to “steal” domains and use computer users like a commodity instead of people and customers (even though SeanRaud did not charge to search his data)!!
Townlands are the smallest unit of land division in Ireland. The index lists the location of each townland by county, barony, civil parish and Poor Law Union, if known. The boundaries of Poor Law Unions (PLUs) and Registrar’s Districts are the same. Civil Parish and Church Parish Boundaries are NOT the same (in most instances).
If you wish to know why this is, it goes to the development and uses of these “areas of land” and events in Ireland over the Centuries. But I am ure most just want to know what District to look for information in, so lets continue:
Volumes & Pages up to 1877
The original 130 districts were divided into 5 administrative areas. The quarterly returns received by the Government Register Office (GRO) in Dublin were then bound up into the five areas (volumes), each registration district was assigned a certain volume. So, each quarter, when the returns were due, five volumes were created. When referring to the National Index, which is in straight A to Z sequence, by year, you will find volume and page columns. To determine which quarter the event took place, see the below table.
| Volumes | 1-5 | March Quarter |
| Volumes | 6-10 | June Quarter |
| Volumes | 11-15 | Sept Quarter |
| Volumes | 16-20 | Dec Quarter |
Knowing the volumes to determine which part of the year they refer to is not necessary after 1878 when the National Index was published in quarterly rather than yearly.
Northern Ireland
Up to 1922, all of Northern Ireland’s records are included in Ireland’s civil registration. With the creation of Northern Ireland in 1922, an amount of realignment had to take place in Volumes 2 and 3, while Volume 1, which was almost all Northern Ireland, was abolished. Check the following table to see which Registrar’s Districts were effected.
| Districts 1921 | Volumes | 1922 |
| Castleblayney | Volume 1 | Volume 2 |
| Gortin | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Omagh | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Clogher | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Enniskillen | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Irvinestown | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Castlederg | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Strabane | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Londonderry | Volume 2 | Northern Ireland |
| Lisnaskea | Volume 3 | Northern Ireland |
Deaths
The information recorded on a death record is: date and place of death; given name(s) and surname; sex; marital status; age; occupation; cause of death; the name and address of informant, and date of registration and signature of the Registrar. However, where the deceased died in an institution (hospital, workhouse, sanatorium) the home address might not be recorded, and the age might be inaccurate as might the marital status, since the info was probably given by the institution’s employee who may not have been very familiar with the person.
1864-1874
It should be noted that in the first ten years of registration (1864-1874) a very good number of events went unregistered. And more went unregistered in the west of Ireland than in any other part of the country. The greatest compliance was in urban areas.
Table of registrar’s districts with volume# and county
LDS film number for Ireland Birth Index 1864-1921
LDS film numbers for Ireland Birth Records 1864-1955
LDS film numbers for Ireland Death Index 1864-1921
LDS film number for Ireland Death Records 1864-1870