I am trying to trace my great grandfather stephen reynolds born abt.1870 died 1935 in dingle co.kerry

Question

I cannot get past 1911 census where Stephen and his wife Margaret Moynihan were visiting it is believed he was from London as he was known as cockney Reynolds in the town

Answer 1

For Irish records https://www.irishgenealogy.ie has digitised images available FREE for births, deaths & marriages.

Stephen Reynolds died 16 Oct 1935 (GRID: 1578755)

Hanora Reynolds born 2 Apr 1913 (GRID: 1252824)

Thomas Flannery & Hanoria Reynolds married 28 Apr 1935 (GRID: 1397848)

Stephen Raynolds & Margaret Moynahan married 9 Oct 1910 (GRID: 2019468). Stephen (a Widower) s/o John; Margaret d/o Patrick.

Comments

The site you've linked to is reasonably good for conducting searches and gathering information. However, the records I've seen are not digitized images of the originals. I hesitate to call them forgeries, but must stress they are little more than transcriptions and it would be prudent to verify the data.

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For more details on the Civil Records site see here: https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/what-are-the-civil-records

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Yes, I'm aware of their claims but am suspicious of their validity. Here is an image of two versions of the same record. The upper one was purchased from GRONI and the bottom one was downkoaded  FREE from the IrishGen site. I leave it to each to decide which one (if either) is genuine.

LINK TO FULL SIZE IMAGE

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The one from GRONI looks like a scan of the original register image - the signatures are in different writing.

The one from the Civil Records site - at the bottom of the page there is a declaration to state it is a true copy of the register image - so a transcription of the register entry (but I noted an error in the spelling of the christian name of the second witness). This copy being sent to the General Register Office.

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Yes, oddly enough both the witness and the transcriber got it wrong. According to other records, including her father's will, her forename is Mary and Ann is a middle name. I presume that she was always called by both names and therefor came to consider it all one name.

This illustrates my concern about transcriptions v the real document. It's the little nuances that get missed and, of course, the window for human error. I have heard some people say they've seen originals on the site and I wonder if the location is a factor with the Northern Ireland records being held by HM government. However, you have soothed some of my initial reluctance to accept that site's evidence.