Irish Birth Records: A Snapshot in History

Genealogy often reduces individuals and the varied, colourful lives they led down to three dates, birth, marriage and death.

This is one of the pitfalls of perhaps a more traditional genealogy. The quest for dates is important of course, and these documents can verify generations and individuals like no other. However, we mustn’t forget the human story and the history they lived through. 

I have found many many many birth records during research projects that have spoken to me as a historian, a storyteller, and as a human.

Perhaps my favourite example is a baby registered as Peace Montgomery, born on 11 November 1918 in Killaney, County Down.

His parents, John and Sarah, were aware that their baby's birth occurred on such an auspicious date. Their choice of name speaks to the horrors the world had just experienced in World War One and their hope for things to come. Their hope for the next generation and the future.

This combination of past, present and future is fascinating to me. My research is dedicated to the stories and real human experiences of the past. It is difficult to connect to our history and connect to our present when we remove these. 

That old and frequently used phrase - ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, springs to mind.