New to genealogy - questions re My Heritage and genealogy.ie and finding birth and death details

Hannaho

I signed up with My Heritage, and I'm doing my family tree on there. They were very pushy though hand rang me with massive sales pitch the day after I joined, wanting me to upgrade the package, to have smart matches etc, for another 130 euros. I said I didn't have the money at the moment. I may upgrade over the next few days when I have a think about it. Do people here think the upgraded My Heritage package is worth it. Also, I wasn't going to do the DNA test with them, but with Ancestry, and also 123 and Me, as I am trying to trace a possible genetic cancer gene. Is this a good way to proceed or not?

In relation to the birth and death details - I have searched genealogy.ie - the civil records - and my mother, nor her 10 siblings, born between 1912 and 1931, appear on it. I know my mother's birth wasn't registered until seven years after her actual birth, but she is still not on genelogy.ie. Also, I can't find the date of death/entry of death for my paternal grandfather, who I believe died in 1967 on genealog.ie, though I was able to locate the entry for his wife's death in 1960 in genealogy.ie. Why is this? Is there a better site that would have more complete details of births or deaths, or do I need to spend a day somewhere like the General Registry Office in Dublin?

Apologies for what are probably very basic questions, but I am a complete beginner at this.

Spook_ie

The civil records for irishgeneaology.ie are limited to some years, deaths I think are only upto 1970 at the moment and any births since 1920 wouldn't be on it either

https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/news/154-update-to-the-civil-records-3

pinkypinky

Hi Hannaho,

Welcome!

Irishgenealogy.ie has data protection parameters in place so you won't find any births post 1920 there. Marriages go up to 1945 and deaths to 1970. One extra year of records will be on the site hopefully soon. If you are sure your grandfather died in 1967, give us his name and place of death and we'll help you find it. It may be that you are using the wrong registration district (E.G., there are many registration districts for Co. Cork but one is called Cork. You might easily think this covered the whole county but in fact you might need Skibbereen or Bandon, etc).

My Heritage is not great for Irish records so I do not recommend the upgrade. Your best solution is to test with Ancestry and then you can transfer the raw DNA file to MyH for free. They are good for DNA matches. However, I do not recommend the health upgrades on any of these tests. They give vague factoids which don't have much scientific basis.

pinkypinky

I also recommend you have a read of our sticky which has lots of beginner's advice.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2056388162/how-to-trace-your-irish-ancestors#latest

55Gem

Irish Genealogy is the best, I'd say, in the world.

The search on Irish Genealogy can be a bit tricky at times particular if the name has a prefix, the O on a name for instance, it's worth playing around, try without the O, for example Rourke, than O'Rourke and O Rourke also many a registered without a first name, particularly in Dublin city.

Spelling can also be a problem.

Sometimes it's better not to fill in all you know, you end up with more results to trawl through but that can be the best way to zoom in on the correct ones.

Don't be too precise about the years, a child born in December may not have been registered until the following year.

This site is good for registration districts Registration District Map Browse (swilson.info)

Mick Tator

Firstly, as Pinky/Mod says, read the sticky. Lots of hints there on how and where to get stuff for free.

Secondly, Irish Births, Marriages, Deaths are 100, 75 and 50 years limited due to GDPR. However, a site like Familysearch.org may have more recent records (read the sticky!)

I have used MyHeritage for DNA and research; I have used Ancestry for DNA and research; I have used FTDNA for DNA with some ‘linked’ research; I have used Rootsireland for research(church records).

If you have bought from MyHeritage and are still in the ‘cooling off’ period, just cancel and  get your money back. They are rubbish for Ireland and not much better for elsewhere. I reviewed them here some time back with detailed findings. (Crap search function on new site, cannot find it.)

If you are worried about a cancer gene, it is too important to rely on a cheapo test. Get a proper one through your GP. Genealogy-type medical/DNA tests are illegal in several countries for a good reason.(e.g. France)

If you are ‘Ireland-centric’ use rootsireland. For all-round research including DNA go with Ancestry, it is far ahead in data, facilities, and numbers. If you go down their DNA road also register with Gedmatch; use FTDNA for Y-DNA (get at minimum a 67 marker test) and also upload your autosomal to them.

Hannaho

Thanks to all of you for your comments. Really helpful, and the sticky for beginners was great. Pinkypinky, I have managed to trace my grandfather. My dad had no relationship with his grandfather, so he had told me my grandfather had died the year after I was born, so hence I was trying between 1960 and 1970 for his death. However, rang GRO in Werburgh Street, and a very helpful lady suggested I search from 1970 to 1980, and she found his death cert for the year 1978. I have also managed to find out that he is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery - I have the record for it. My father is also buried there, in a different plot, with his first wife. It's a little sad to think that I was 14 when my grandfather died, and could have had a relationship with him, but that's I suppose how it goes, and the things that can be discovered through family history research.

Re. My Heritage - I have set up a family tree there tracing my family back to my paternal great grandfather who was born in 1847. I still have to trace my maternal great grandfather. I think I will keep this on the My Heritage site for now, as it's been a lot of work, but will get the ancestry DNA kit and then, upload to My Heritage. My genealogy is almost completely Irish centric. Is there a way when I have all this finished of actually getting a printout, in colour, of the family tree, from what I have put into the My Heritage site?

Re the DNA testing - as I am female, I am presuming the tests that test the Y DNA are not useful to me??

Question re non-registered births. I cannot locate any births for my mother's entire family on irishgenealogy.ie. Several of my mother's older brothers were born between 1913 and 1920. However, I suspect that these births were not registered until well after the birth date. My mother was born in 1929, but her birth was not registered until 1935. Is it a matter of just going into the GRO Office in Werburgh Street, and trawling through records. I know they were all born in Headford Galway, in the town, in the same house which was owned by my maternal grandparents until 1967.

Spook_ie

One tip I would give to myself at the start would be download as much as you can with regard to images from any sites you visit and store them separately on a memory stick. They didn't transfer across when I pasted a GED file from one to the other

55Gem

Births won't be on Irish Genealogy until 100 years after they were registered.

As suggested you can look on Family Search to see when they were registered and you can use that info, vol number and page number to order them, or as there seems to be a delay with ordering certs at the moment to shorten time on a visit to Werburgh Street.

Family Search index goes up to 1958 but is only an index there are no certs to view.

Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958 • FamilySearch

You will need to register with Family Search but it is free.

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118538635#Comment_118538635

Hi Hannao,

Q DNA - Yes, Y-DNA is male, so can be used only on male siblings/cousins/uncles.

Q Printing - There are several online print outfits that will print a scroll for you. You download the file as a GEDCOM, send it to them and they process it from that.

You should check newspaper archives for BMD announcements - but do note that MyHeritage does not have an Irish newspaper database (it contains some RSAI journals and links to Irish news published on the Australian TROVE site (the latter is free).

My 'people search' results on MyH was so poor I thought I was doing something wrong. I then tried for two known individuals (1850-1900 period) and even with dates, cities, spouses had useless results. I'll try and find what I wrote back then.....

Mick Tator

Here is a link that covers it and the link in that link give more detail/stats.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116367214#Comment_116367214

pinkypinky

Question re non-registered births. I cannot locate any births for my mother's entire family on irishgenealogy.ie. Several of my mother's older brothers were born between 1913 and 1920. However, I suspect that these births were not registered until well after the birth date. My mother was born in 1929, but her birth was not registered until 1935. Is it a matter of just going into the GRO Office in Werburgh Street, and trawling through records. I know they were all born in Headford Galway, in the town, in the same house which was owned by my maternal grandparents until 1967.

This happened in one of my families too - they were crap at registering births.

The GRO index on Irishgenealogy does allow you to do an advanced search with just the 2 surnames. It's possible that your uncles have a different legal name to what they were known as. Go to advanced, put in just the surname, select births for that range of years and put your grandmother's birth surname in the box. I wouldn't even put in a registration district, just in case they were born elsewhere.

That search should return every child born that fits the parameters and you can just go through those. If they're not there then, there is a sticky period between 1920-1928 where the indexes on the other sites, which do go up to 1958, don't have the mother's birth surname in the index, so you'll have to make a list of candidates. You don't need to go into Werburgh St, you can order via email with the references you have from the index, but you may end up with a few wrong ones to get all the correct ones.