Question

Hi I’m currently trying to research my family tree for my dad who turns 70 next month. They come from the Balinameen area of Roscommon and I think I may have found them on the census in 1901 but I’m a bit confused by one of the names. Would it have been common for someone called Mary to go by the name of Margaret? Also some of the births/Deaths etc don’t seem to be available to view online. Is this normal for records in Roscommon in the late 1800’s early 1900’s? Any help would be appreciated :)

Hi Sandra,

Trying to trace down your family tree can be a very rewarding yet challenging experience. It's a positive sign that you have already had luck on the 1901 census. It's not common for someone to interchange between the names Mary and Margaret but I wouldn't rule it out. The missing dates could be an omission at the point of record, where they were not supplied at the time or the recorder did not include them. Things like this can be frustrating but does not rule out the places you are looking in.

The following sites can produce some good results and should help you along in your search:

http://roscommon.rootsireland.ie/
https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/world-records/full-list-of-the-irish-family-history-records
https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/af7893-general-register-office/

I hope you find all the information your looking for. If you have any other context regarding your relatives, any details at all that your father has told you can turn out to be helpful on your search.

Best of luck,

Sean

Hi Seán, thanks for that. I actually got myself all confused with the Mary/Margaret thing. They’re not the same person at all. They’re actually mother and daughter! My great grandad owned a pub in the area around the 40’s/50’s. It’s gone now and is now a post office I believe. I’ve also been able to find the details of my great granny and grandads headstones in Ballinameen so I’ve emailed the GRO to get a copy of their death certs. From there I should be able to work out their date of births and see if it matches to the record on the census. If it does I’m laughing, if not I’m back to square one!!

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for getting back to us with the update!

Hopefully, the information you get back from the GRO will indeed be of your family and you can finalise some of the details.

In addition to the links Sean gave, Ballinameen is a small village and Find a Grave has some records for the local church which may hold some information too.

Please keep us up to date with any further developments,

Good luck

Thanks for that. I can’t seem to find their headstones through that link although I did find the info on their burials on the igp page. The research room in the GRO is closed due to Covid. I’m raging as I’m lost now! I did manage to find some of my relatives on a website called familysearch.org but it only gives their name and birth date etc. You can’t actually view the record itself. Does anyone have any info on that site and how it works by any chance ?? Thanks

The website Familysearch.org is not one that we have used or knowledge on specifically. They do seem to have their own community and questions section, so maybe you could ask there for more specific help.

They also list some of the external sites that we are aware of such as,

RootsIreland
Findmypast
IrelandXO

I would also add IrishGenealogy to any family research website list. It may be interesting, if you don't mind of course, listing the family connection information here so we can see some of the details and connections you have already made.

It can be frustrating to piece it all together but hopefully, things will drop into place.

You can search, view and download images, free of charge, for Roscommon of birth certificates from 1864 to 1919, marriage certificates 1845-1944and death certificates 1871 to 1969 at https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ by selecting ‘Civil Records’ tab.

Thanks so much for sharing this super helpful info, Brian! :) Hopefully, it'll help Sandra on her search.