Your Irish ancestor's birth record, found and ordered.

Two taps, and you see exactly what we do and what it costs.

Yes, you could do this yourself. Here is when it stops working.

The Irish civil index is public and free up to 1924, with a photograph of the register page for most of that range. We are not going to pretend otherwise. When the family already knows the county, the year and the spelling, an afternoon of your own gets there. These are the three places where that afternoon turns into a week and then into nothing:

The mother's maiden name is not known. The index groups siblings by it. Without it, a common surname in a busy district returns dozens of entries and no way to tell which family is yours.
A county is not a registration district. Births were filed by superintendent registrar's district, and a district can straddle a county line. Searching the county the family talks about can miss the entry entirely.
The spelling in the register is the clerk's, not the family's. One clerk in one year decided how the name was written, and that is the only spelling the index will match.
The six northern counties leave the index from 1922. After that the record sits with the northern register, which is a separate office with its own fees.
Before 1864 there is no civil birth record at all. Irish civil registration of births began that year, and a baptismal register carries the birth instead.

What lands in the post, and what lands in your inbox

The certificate, by post, from the issuing office to your address. It is printed on secure paper for legal and administrative use. It never passes through our hands, which is also why it cannot be lost by us.
The register page, by email, the day we find it. A photograph of the entry with the group registration id and the year, so you see the record before the paper arrives.
One page on what that certificate proves. Where it sits on the register's own document list, and what is still missing from that list.
The ordering links for the two further records. Your parent's and your own, each with the office that issues it.
A multilingual form at no extra charge when the certificate is ordered, which removes the need for a translation in front of authorities in the European Union.

Timing, said plainly

The search is the fast part. With a county and a rough year, the entry is usually found the day you order and the certificate goes out the same day.
The General Register Office posts worldwide. It does not publish a delivery time, so we will not invent one for you. What we do publish is the day your order went in.
Northern Ireland does publish one. Delivery outside the United Kingdom takes up to 28 days.
A hard search takes longer at our end. Records outside Ireland have to name the place first. Expect days, not the same afternoon.
You hear from us twice. Once when the entry is found, once when the certificate is ordered.

The state's own fees are separate, and they are small

The certificate is 20 euro from the General Register Office, plus 2 euro post outside Ireland. We pay it out of our fee, it is not added to your bill.
An unofficial copy for research is 5 euro and arrives by email. A letter of no record, search included, is 20 euro.
Northern Ireland is 15 pounds per certificate, 8 pounds for a second copy in the same order, and a 7 pound search fee sits inside that price and is not returned.
The Foreign Births Register fee is a different fee entirely. 278 euro for an adult, 153 euro for a child under 18, paid by the applicant directly to the Department of Foreign Affairs at the moment of submission.
We never touch that one. We do not submit register applications for anyone and we are not connected to the Department in any way.

Homeport is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. We locate and obtain a public record on your behalf. Irish birth, marriage and death records are public records that anyone may order. We are not connected to the Department of Foreign Affairs or to the General Register Office, and decisions on citizenship are made by the Irish authorities alone.