Irish civil reg.: finding potential spouses

[Coromandel]

I don't have my own subscription to Ancestry so am always looking for sneaky new ways to squeeze as much information as possible from their indexes without subscribing.

Yesterday I discovered a new trick with their Irish civil registration indexes.

1. Find one partner in the marriage on the FamilySearch index.
2. Note the year, district and page number.
3. Go to Ancestry 'Irish Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1845-1958'.
4. Type the year and location in the appropriate boxes and put the page number in the Keyword box (leave the name fields blank).
5. Click 'Search'
6. Hey presto! You get a list of all the people on that page.

In the ones I've tried there are up to eight couples, i.e. four marriages, on the same page. Still, it helps narrow down which is the right marriage.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Perhaps I am being dense but I can't see a box marked "keyword" on the Marriage Index you have referred to. Apart from the name, it only asks for place and year(s).

[Coromandel]

This is the page I was using:

http://
search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2572

I should also have added to the above instructions that you need to go to 'Show Advanced' and then tick 'Match all terms exactly'.

[CanadianCousin]

I thought I'd try this, even though I'd already found my grandparents' marriage (i.e., both names) on the FamilySearch site. They were married in Cork, Co. Cork, in the July - September Quarter of 1899, and the marriage was indexed in Volume 5, on Page 99. I went to Ancestry (using the URL provided) and followed instructions, entering the year "1899", the location "Cork, Cork, Ireland", and the keyword "99", and checked "Match all terms exactly". Instead of 8 names, though, I got 35, enough for 17 1/2 marriages! I'm not sure if I missed something, or just had an unusually popular page number - perhaps this trick works better in some places than in others? I'm sure it will help many people anyway, but thought I'd point out that "your mileage may vary".

Tim

[Coromandel]

Thanks, Tim! Hmmm, it sounds like I need to refine my system!

I think I must have just been lucky and chosen examples where the same page number was only used in a given district once in that particular year . . whereas it sounds like your example is from the opposite extreme where the same page number was used in every quarter.

I have found a way to make the list shorter . . . you seem to be able to include a month as well (any of the months in the desired quarter, it doesn't seem to matter which) it reduces the list to eight names. The $64,000 question though is whether your grandparents' names are both together on that list that appears if you select July, August or September 1899. If they aren't, then my system has fallen at the first hurdle! Fingers crossed . . .

[CanadianCousin]

Hi Coromandel -

I tried again using your suggestion (i.e., inserting any of the months for that quarter in the search box) and it worked a treat! My grandparents - Maggie Harrington and James O'Sullivan - showed up on the list of eight.

Well done -

Tim

[alfier]

some very helpful advice for all of us scrooges . thankyou Coromandel