My experience hass been that the Catholic birth/baptism record is likely to be the most accurate. A baby was baptised quickly after birth, as an unbaptised child who died would not be allowed to be buried in the Catholic Cemetery....hence, all the small crosses near the entrancee to many such] cemeteries.  Their was a penalty for waiting too long to register a birth with the civil authorities in addition to the normal registration fee, so parents who were facing payment of the penalty often changed the date of birth to fall within the required registration period. Marge - Tucson, AZ Searching - Kilkenny, Lydon and Treston in and around Ballyhaunis, Mayo ----- Original Message ----- From: "john loughney" <[email protected]> To: [email protected], [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 6:40:20 PM Subject: [IRL-MAYO] question on RC birth reports vs Civil birth reports Hi all, I found a Civil Birth report for a great uncle, as well as the RC birth/baptism. They had slightly different dates.  The Civil was later than the Roman Catholic report. Any ideas?  Would the Roman Catholic report be the birth or the baptism?  Would the Civil report be when the report was made? thanks, John   ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message