Registers vary as to the date of commencement, condition and as to information contained therein. Roman Catholic Registers.
Roman Catholic Registers consist mainly of baptism and marriage records. Very few burial records were kept. The majority begin in the early nineteenth century but some can date from prior to that time.
Those parish registers that are available to search, on microfilm, in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, can now be browsed online
HERE. Church of Ireland Records.
Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials can date from the late seventeenth century but the majority commence between 1770 and 1820. However a number of registers were lodged in the Public Record Office in Dublin and were destroyed during the Civil War of 1922. In some instances copies were kept in the local parish or historians made transcriptions and these are available for research. Presbyterian Records.
Presbyterian registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths can start in the seventeenth century but in some instances early records are to be found in the registers of the local Church of Ireland parish.
In 1843 the Judges in England gave there
opinion, on Presbyterian Marriages in Ireland, to the
House of Lords. They stated that if a marriage between a
Presbyterian and an Episcopalian was
performed by a Presbyterian minister it was invalid.
Source: Drogheda Argus dated 15 July
1843, p.3.
This
led to various petitions from Presbyterian Congregations
in Ireland. Eventually in August 1844 the Marriages
(Ireland) Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vic c. 81) was passed. It permitted
marriages to be celebrated in Meeting Houses after
publication, on three Sundays, of bans or by license
issued by a minister in each Presbytery. The latter was
to keep a marriage register.
Methodist Records.
From 1747 to 1816 records of baptisms, marriages and burials are to be found in the registers of the Church of Ireland. After 1816 a split occurred with the ''Primitive Methodists'' remaining within the Church of Ireland and the ''Wesleyan Methodists'' maintaining their own registers. This lasted to 1878.
Quaker Records.
From the time of their arrival in Ireland in the seventeenth century the Society of Friends kept records of births, marriages and deaths. Marriage Licence Bonds.
Persons wishing to obtain a licence to marry without having banns called were required to enter into a bond with the Church of Ireland bishop of the diocese. Some abstracts and the indexes to the bonds lodged in each Diocesan Court and the Prerogative Court are available for research.
The available indexes, in the National Archives of Ireland, to Marriage Licence Bonds can be researched online
HERE.
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