LOTGS
10/16/2016 04:39 EST
Hi everyone,
I don't know if anyone would be able to offer advice on my issue here, but I'm having trouble contacting the relevant authorities so thought I'd see what such a knowledgeable bunch might have to say!
I'm a UK citizen currently trying to register on the Irish Foreign Births Register for reasons that are probably obvious, and have hit a problem with the documentation. My grandfather was born in Ireland but went missing from our family when my father was only young, around the time of divorcing from my grandmother. After hours of research I've managed to find out that he later remarried and died in London. So now I have (or at least have located) his birth certificate, marriage certificate (to my grandmother), remarriage certificate and death certificate. According to the FBR webpage, the only other piece of documentation I need is his divorce decree absolute, but for everything I've tried, this can't be found. The family doesn't already hold a copy of it, no one still living remembers when (or even for definite where) it took place, and I can't find a record of it in publicly available registers. I've also paid £65 to the Central Family Court in London for a 10 year search of their divorce register (covering the years we're quite confident it must have taken place in), which returned nothing.
So my question is- does anyone have any idea if this one document is as essential as the advice implies? My understanding is that such documents are needed to 'join the dots' of a person's life to ensure it is the same individual (particularly necessary in the event of a change of name), but he of course never changed name, and it seems that details on the other documents do a pretty comprehensive job of proving they are all pertaining to the same person. What's more, my father's birth certificate obviously shows he is the child of my grandfather and grandmother (who the first marriage certificate shows married each other); once this link of citizenship to the next generation is made, isn't what happened to my grandfather afterwards largely irrelevant?
I know that the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are the only ones that can give me a definitive answer, but while I try to get this answer I thought I'd see what anyone else with knowledge of such issues knows.
Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can give!
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Puckboy99
10/16/2016 10:15 EST
Try contacting this lady, who was extremely helpful she I obtained my FBR:
Eleanor.O'Reilly@dfa.ie
Eleanor O’Reilly
Consular Section
FBR Processing,
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Frederick Buildings
Molesworth Street
Dublin 2
In general, you need to trace YOUR lineage back to the grandparent born in Ireland, so information on yourself, your parents, then the grandparent ie. You, your father, & his father.
I was lucky enough to have all 4 grandparents born in Ireland & my mother had her parent's original docs.....I just had to track down my parents marriage certificate & the State of New York was the hold up.
Good luck. Ms. O'Reilly was very helpful & quick to reply.
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Meachair54
10/16/2016 11:29 EST
Hello LOTGS,
I'am trying to give some sort of answer but I'm not clear on some info. Were your GPs both of Irish descent, were they married in Ireland and where was the divorce from. With that info it might make tracking the divorce decree easier.
Yes according to FBR if anyone in the the lineage chain is divorced you need to have a copy, I don't know why , it's FBR requirements.
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LOTGS
10/16/2016 13:31 EST
Puckboy99: thanks for the information and your wishes. I hope you're right about only tracking my lineage back to my Irish grandfather. It's quite easy for me to supply all the documents necessary to do that.
Meachair54; thanks for trying to help, sorry I wasn't very clear on my family history. My grandfather was born in Dublin in 1912 and ended up in my hometown of Derby in England during wartime. Here he married my grandmother and they had my father who has lived in Derby all his life (and, as I understand it, automatically has Irish citizenship by being the son of a born Irish national). Then of course I was born to him and my mother who is also a local.
We're assuming the divorce was registered in Derby, but we're not sure as my grandfather moved around a bit within England and Wales after he and my grandmother separated. But the Central Family Court search should cover all divorces in these two countries, and yet it came back with nothing.
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DebAckley
10/16/2016 17:28 EST
Hi All....My grandfather was born in Belfast in the late 1800's. I went thru a site out of California...that helped me obtain his birth certificate to get Irish citizenship...in NY as his granddaughter I wasn't able to get his death certificate....some crazy rule...but luckily my wonderful aunt was able to get it as she was his daughter....
If you google Irish citizenship help in CA....they were wonderful and I got my citizenship papers in a couple of months and now hold an EU passport!
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LOTGS
10/16/2016 17:40 EST
Puckboy99: thanks for the information and your wishes. I hope you're right about only tracking my lineage back to my Irish grandfather. It's quite easy for me to supply all the documents necessary to do that.
Meachair54; thanks for trying to help, sorry I wasn't very clear on my family history. My grandfather was born in Dublin in 1912 and ended up in my hometown of Derby in England during wartime. Here he married my grandmother and they had my father who has lived in Derby all his life (and, as I understand it, automatically has Irish citizenship by being the son of a born Irish national). Then of course I was born to him and my mother who is also a local.
We're assuming the divorce was registered in Derby, but we're not sure as my grandfather moved around a bit within England and Wales after he and my grandmother separated. But the Central Family Court search should cover all divorces in these two countries, and yet it came back with nothing.
DebAckley: that's great that you were able to get sorted. Though with being in the UK I'm not sure a California-based organisation would be able to help me.
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LOTGS
10/17/2016 13:05 EST
Not sure why my messages took so long to appear, as you can see I tried twice in waiting so long!
Anyway, great news: I got in touch with the lady as Puckboy99 suggested and she has said that if I have the two marriage certificates then the decree absolute won't be necessary! So thank you for providing me with the details to contact her, I'm so glad there shouldn't be anything between me and registering on the FBR now.
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DonieHoran
10/17/2016 13:42 EST
Great news for you ! - I sincerely hope that you enjoy your move to the Emerald Isle if that is your plan.
You & your family will be very welcome.
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LOTGS
10/20/2016 12:47 EST
Thanks for your wishes everyone. Quite inexplicably, this tale has taken another slight twist- today I received another letter from the Central Family Court saying that the decree absolute now HAS been found, and will be sent to me from the court in Nottingham where it was registered. Even more strangely, the date of this letter is before that of the letter I received last week stating that it couldn't be found.
Either way, I'm overjoyed that I can do this thing and at least now I'm getting something for my money, as well as it scratching my genealogical itch!
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