Discrepancies In The Records/ A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Civil Registration Office

I've been looking over the documents I've collected for my family, and doing more research after my trip to Ireland. I had not searched for my family in the online Civil Registration birth records until now. I had some birth information already. My great-grandmother's baptism is recorded in local church records for Milltown, Addergoole Parish, County Galway, Ireland. Since my great-grandmother didn't register the births of her children in the United States I didn't think her parents would have bothered either. I was wrong. I finally got around to looking at the Civil Registration records for births, and all but one child's birth was registered. The problem now is sorting out the discrepancies in the documents.

Ellen/ Helen Mullen's birth certificate does correct the baptismal certificate, which named her mother as Mary Ruane. Her aunt's name was Mary Ruane or Ruvane, but her mother's name was Mary Huane or Huvane. The similar names caused confusion, I'm sure. These records do agree, however, on her date of birth 28 December 1880. However, this doesn't agree with the date of birth on her death certificate which was recorded as 26 December 1880. Helen's son, Edwin Mason, provided the information on her death certificate. I wonder if he gave the wrong date of birth, or someone hand wrote the information and 28 looked like 26? I would like to find a document where Helen provided her birth date.

I'm not finding her in the Social Security death index, and have no other documents with her birth date. I will change her date of birth in my records to the 28th. The records created closest to her birth are likely the most accurate. The baptismal record was created in 1880; although these entries may have been copied from the original book sent to Dublin and destroyed in the fire during the Civil War? The Civil Registration record wasn't created until April of 1881, four months after her birth. Apparently her family waited a long time to register her birth. Since both of these records agree I think that likely confirms her date of birth was the 28th.

Ellen's sister Bridget's birth information is far more puzzling. Bridget came to America a number of years after her sister, around 1907. She was still living with her parents in Ireland when the 1901 Census for Ireland was taken. Soon after her arrival in America, joining her sister in Chicago, she became a Catholic Nun, changing her name to Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen. Sister Mary Kathleen lived to be 103 years old dying in 1991. The information contained in her eulogy stated that her parents were Patrick Mullen and Mary Huvane, and she was born 1 February 1888. I believed that the Nun who gave her eulogy must have had the correct information? I found Bridget's birth record in the Civil Registration records, and the date isn't just a few days off. The Civil Registration record states she was born 6 April 1888, not 1 February 1888.

Why such a big discrepancy? I decided to try to find another document with her date of birth. A Social Security record I found matches Sister Mary Kathleen very well. The date of birth is 2 February instead of the first. The date of death is the same, and I believe she may have spent some time in Iowa which is where the Social Security card was applied for according the Familysearch.org site?

Unfortunately the baptismal book for the Parish of Addergoole, which would contain her baptismal record, is missing many pages. The year 1888 is missing so I can't use that record to verify her birth month.

The Catholic Nun, Sister Mary Naomi BVM, sent a copy of Sister Mary Kathleen's wake service and funeral mass to my grandmother, her niece. I'm not sure if Sister Mary Naomi, or someone else, put together the family history presented during the mass? Whoever collected the information did a good job because it is generally correct, as verified by marriage, birth, and census records in Ireland. The names of the children were given in birth order, which is very impressive so long after their births in 1991. Someone in my family added the name Patrick to the list which seems to be incorrect? According to Census records Mary Huvane Mullen gave birth to 5 children, and 5 were living in 1911.  The Irish Census is notoriously off when it comes to the ages of adults, but most of the other information is generally correct. The accuracy of the information provided during the church services leads me to lean towards February as her birth month. Her employer, the church, would have her birth date plus the Pope sent her birthday greetings on her 100th birthday.

So why are the dates of birth so far off? My guess is the family gave a fictitious date of birth because they worried about being fined for registering the February birth in late April. I'm seeing various requirements for reporting a birth before a fine kicks in. Some say parents had to report a birth within 6 weeks, and others say 3 months. It's possible the time period varied before a fine was charged. The Mullens reported their daughter Ellen's birth 4 months late. They may have been fined and decided to change Bridget's birth date.

I have the birth date 28 March 1882 for Michael Mullen. The Civil Registration record states he was born 28 May. I thought that maybe I just misread May as March, and that was my mistake. I got out the baptismal record you see below and it states he was born 28 Mar 1882, and was baptized 2 April 1882. If he was baptized on the 2nd of April he could not have been born May 28th. Again the records don't match. Again I believe the family was worried about a fine, and changed the date of birth. I believe that the birth date on the baptismal record is most likely correct and will keep that date as his birth date. After his marriage to Ellen Charles in October 1917 I lose travel of Michael. I will keep researching to find out if he left Ireland?

Thomas Mullen's birthday was 15 June 1884 according to the Civil Registration record for him. Since I have no other record of his birth because the year 1884 is missing in the Baptismal Book I can't verify this is correct. He is said to have been born the same month as his birth was registered, which is suspicious because we know his parents generally weren't that timely in registering births. I will record that date with a question mark?

Then we have Winifred Mullen (my grandmother's name was Dorothy Winifred, namesake of her Aunt) who I can't find any records for other than the 1901 and 1911 Census when she was living with her parents. I can't find any registration of her birth, or marriage record, or death record? I wonder what happened to her?

Why the tardy registrations? Maybe they were headed the the Civil Registration Office within the required time but met a friend and decided to go to the pub in Tuam or go shopping? Or more likely distance and weather played a role. I believe they would have had to travel 10 miles to Tuam to register the birth. They seemed to wait until late spring, and in one case summer, when the weather would be better to register the births.

Somehow they never managed to get to the Civil Registration office on time leaving me with some inaccurate dates of birth and record discrepancies I need to work out.

The ultimate takeaway is if you have an exact birth date for an ancestor and you are looking for them in Civil Registration records you may find them using that date, but if you don't find them keep looking because a fabricated date of birth may have been used to avoid a fine. The fabricated date could be a different month or even a different year than you have for that ancestor.