Even when we are quite confident of our information on the person sought, as to their year of birth and likely registration district, there can be still be roadblocks in identifying a birth.
For many years I have searched unsuccessfully, for the birth Margaret Kelly in Dublin in 1902. Yes, this is needle in a haystack country. Prior to civil births going online, time and cash was expended trying to identify Margaret’s birth. Failing to find a Margaret Kelly, I then switched attention to those Kelly births registered prefixed by the word ‘unknown. Using the website, irishgenealogy.ie, typing in ‘Unknown ‘as the first name followed by the Kelly surname will supply you with a (long) list of births.
However, two pieces of information about Margaret were known. Firstly, the month of birth, and secondly that Margaret’s mother was unmarried at the time of her birth. Therefore, the focus was a female Kelly child born to a mother Kelly. Factoring these criteria quickly narrowed allowing me to finally view the birth of the elusive Margaret.
By Carmel Gilbride
