Hi Jan,
The General Register Office has made Births, Deaths and Marriages available, for free, online at
www.irishgenealogy.ie.
Births from 1864 to1925 (next year the cut-off point will be extended to 1926, and so forth).
Marriages from 1864 to 1950 (next year the cut-off point will be 1951)
Deaths from 1871 to 1975 (next year the cut-off point will be 1976).
When searching the civil records the most puzzling bit is where you are asked to give “Location”. “Location” refers to the Poor Law Union in which the person was born/ married/ died. The Poor Law Unions in Co. Clare were Ennis, Tulla, Scarriff, Ballyvaughan, Ennistymon, Corofin, Kilrush, Killadysart and Limerick.
Unfortunately, most records for Tulla Union have been put under Galway Union. So you need to enter “Galway” in the “Location” box. There is no way anyone could be expected to know of that strange quirk, and I really should have mentioned it to you.
There’s a good map on Wikipedia:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... Unions.png. The Poor Law Unions were made up of smaller registration districts where people could report a birth/marriage/death. This meant that people did not have to travel a long distance. You don’t need to know the registration district when doing the search, but when you look at the image of a record (for instance, the one I sent you showing the marriage of Catherine and Patrick), you will see that it is headed “… in the Registrar’s district of Kilkishen in the Union of Tulla”. When I was completing the search form, I was able to confine the dates to 1864 - 1864, thanks to the information you gave me. When you get a result, click on “view record image” to get the actual page in the Registrar’s book.
In 1907 the Tulla Poor Law Union was amalgamated with Scarriff Union, so bear that in mind if searching after that date.
If you are still puzzled about anything, I will try to help.
Sheila
P.S. Catherine is described as a minor, which makes her sound like a child, but "full age" was 21 at that time, so she might have been 20.
