Certificate of Irish Heritage

[Red Stag]

The government of Ireland is issuing Certificates of Irish Heritage to people from the Diaspora who can prove descent from someone in Ireland. Here is a link: http://www.heritagecertificate.ie/

[sevenoaks]

Nice find... for those who are Irish. I love the Irish Tartans but have no claim to them. Can anyone wear them like the Scots or do you have to be "Irish?"

[Meggers]

sweet. I could do this. I want one.

[ctbuchanan]

Sadly any proof of the direct links I have to Ireland are lost in the mists of time. My Irish ancestors left from somewhere in Ireland during the famine to go to England to build railroads. We can trace back to that first ancestor who was in Yorkshire but canna find any trace or record of them back in Ireland. But I'm comfortable knowing that is where they came from.

[DougC]

Irish links I've got all day long. It's making the jump to Scotland that evades me. I guess that is the plus and minus of being a Campbell!!!

[Meggers]

My family kept the death certificates that trace us back to both Scotland and Ireland but I don't have any other real documentation past those first people. Theres a book called "The Descendants of Daniel Kane" who was the father of the woman who married my Scottish great-etc. grandpa so I am planning on checking that out tomorrow (just learned of it today). Perhaps that can get me a little closer I think Daniel Kane was an Englishman since im almost certain that Elizabeth Kane (his daughter) was from England. I feel pretty certain that I read that on the certificates.

[O'Callaghan]

You don't need to document every step in your family tree to get a certificate. You just have to list a line of descent, i.e. names and dates and places of birth, upload an ID, and upload one document showing a person in that line was either born in Ireland or an Irish citizen, for which they will accept foreign documents.

So for example, I can copy from my family tree the line back to to my Great Great Grandfather (GGGF), and upload images of my US driver's licence and of any year's British census record showing my GGGF was born in Ireland, albeit showing he was resident in London. They will check all the steps inbetween.

BTW, my GGGM also had two Irish born parents, so that makes me 1/8 Irish, and not just 1/16, i.e. my Great Grandfather was 100% Irish. Moreover, my Grandfather was an Irish citizen, because his GF was born in Ireland, but my mother's birth was never registered with the Irish Embassy. I suppose in theory she could still register her own birth, although she's in her 80s and her parents have long since passed on, but it's only because that wasn't done before I was born that I can only get a certificate and not a passport!

Haven't applied yet, but definitely planning to.

[O'Callaghan]

Sadly any proof of the direct links I have to Ireland are lost in the mists of time. My Irish ancestors left from somewhere in Ireland during the famine to go to England to build railroads. We can trace back to that first ancestor who was in Yorkshire but canna find any trace or record of them back in Ireland. But I'm comfortable knowing that is where they came from.

Find an image of a British census record showing that person resident in Yorkshire and born in Ireland and you will be able to get your certificate.

[bdkilted]

my wife's family is Irish, but 40 euros for a piece of paper that says the Murphys are Irish? Too steep for me.

[J_Mimbs]

my wife's family is Irish, but 40 euros for a piece of paper that says the Murphys are Irish? Too steep for me.

That's how I feel as well. And its another 60 for them to frame it for you. Great idea, but way too expensive.