Genealogy for Beginners
Mary Immaculate College History Society
Room T.201 Tara Building
Wednesday 19 Mar 2014
by Paddy Waldron
Where do I start?
Basic free online sources
Irish administrative divisions and genealogical
Where do I finish?
- Where are you coming from?
- Where do you want to go?
- What do you want to know?
- `The obvious gains many marks'.
- Start with yourself! Then work backwards in time.
- Start with a blank pedigree
chart, then eight more for your eight greatgrandparents, and so on
(powers of 2).
- Go sideways as necessary (to siblings and cousins of your direct
ancestors) in order to go backwards.
- Genealogy draws on and can be integrated into many different subjects on
the primary and secondary curricula - e.g. history, mathematics,
statistics, information technology, geography, biology, genetics, civics,
- Start with free software like Ancestral Quest Basics AND
online backup like tribalpages or WorldConnect or
TNG (or vice
versa if you have really fast broadband or are working in collaboration
with a co-author: master copy online and backup offline)
- e.g. http://pwaldron.info/tng/ starting
- Genealogy software and websites allow all information to be easily
imported and exported using GEDCOM files; don't use anything which doesn't
have this facility.
- Talk to those who may know more than you.
- Start with your oldest and/or most knowledgeable relatives
- Start with relatives or others who have already done some research -
don't reinvent the wheel - avoid unnecessary guesswork or trial-and-error -
but verify everything
- Start with your family papers - chocolate box, biscuit tin or butter box:
- in memoriam cards
- family bible
- title deeds
or intestacies (no will, maybe a pedigree affidavit)
- Start with names, dates and places
- Then add the social history, photographs, etc.
- This talk will concentrate on the importance of place
- Start with freely available online sources, working backwards in time
from the most recent.
- Join a genealogy or local history society, e.g. Clare Roots Society
The first objective is to verify your family's oral traditions in primary
sources; then to go back beyond the oral traditions.
Remember that not every record for a John Murphy refers to the John Murphy
from whom you descend.
Even if your ancestor's surname is less common than John Murphy, the same
Avoid forcing a fact to fit the story.
Although the 1911 census may imply that your ancestor John Murphy was born
in County Limerick in 1852, the first baptism that you find for a John Murphy
in County Limerick in 1852 may NOT be your ancestor.
Be even more careful with secondary sources: if someone else's online family
tree has a John Murphy born in County Limerick in 1852, he may NOT be your John
The most basic source is Google,
which is great for more unusual names or combinations of names, like "quin
sleeman"; but Google, by accident or design, does not harvest many genealogy
The major free online Irish sources, roughly in reverse chronological order,
--- Irish Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
- See sample page from original
- FamilySearch.org's one-size-fits-all search form can mislead beginners.
The indexes don't include spouse or parents, apart from the birth index
from c1928-1958, which includes mother's maiden surname only. To narrow
the search, you can fill in one of (a) birth date and/or place (b)
marriage date and/or place or (c) death date and/or place. Filling in
fields which are blank in the record you want will prevent you from
finding it. More details here.
--- Ireland Births and Baptisms mostly 1864-1881
- See sample
- To narrow the search, you can fill in both parents' first and/or last
names and/or birth date and/or place. The appropriate placename to use
varies from year to year and from record to record. Try townland or
dispensary district or Poor Law Union or county.
--- Ireland Marriages mostly 1845-1870
- See sample
page from marriage register
- To narrow the search, you can fill in spouse's and/or father's first
and/or last names and/or marriage date and/or place. Irish marriage
certificates did not until relatively recently include the name of either
the groom's mother or the bride's mother.
--- Ireland Deaths mostly 1864-1870
- See sample
- To narrow the search, you can fill in death date and/or death place
and/or residence place. Irish death certificates did not include the name
of any relative until c2004, unless the informant happened to be a
relative, and even then the relationship may not have been specified. If
it was, then the relationship may be shown in the transcript. The
appropriate placename to use is generally the townland.
- Full familysearch.org search
- In some non-Irish records the familysearch.org transcriptions may
include father's first name, mother's first name and mother's last name,
but not father's last name! See, for example, many entries in New Jersey,
Marriages, 1678-1985. You must leave the father's last name blank if
you want to find these records.
- 1901 and 1911
Census of Ireland
- parish records, free for only about 4 counties, mostly pre-1900
- Griffiths Valuation (askaboutireland Family Name
Search or Place
Name Search - free)
- It's apparently not possible to link to specific map locations - see discussion.
It is possible to link to the occupiers of a specific location using the
PlaceID, e.g. Moveen
West (PlaceID=257300). To view Original Page or Map View, right click
on icon and select "Open Link in New Tab".
- Griffiths Valuation
(Irish Origins - subscription)
Valuation (Find My Past - subscription; also includes Landed Estates
- Griffiths Valuation, printed in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s for
different parts of Ireland,, is continued up to around the abolition of
rates in 1977 in Valuation Office cancelled books, Irish Life Centre,
Abbey Street, Dublin; e.g., Moore
- Lewis, Samuel:
Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837
Applotment Books 1823-1837
- Available online since November 2012. Edit the URL
to see results 100 at a time.
- Wills and
- Different access methods for different subperiods.
Continue with offline sources (General Register Office, Valuation Office,
National Library, National Archives, local libraries and archives, etc.) and
subscription, pay-per-view, etc., online sources (findmypast.ie,
rootsireland.ie, ancestry.ie, irishtimes.com, irishnewsarchive.com, etc.)
- Use a digital camera or scanner to make digital images of as much as
possible, including both sides of photographs, documents, letters,
- Use the Source fields in your genealogy software
- Use a bibliographic database like BibTeX
- Copy and paste the web address/location/uniform resource locator (URL)
where you find your online information from the Address Bar to the notes
field in your genealogy database
- If the website subsequently disappears, or if you find a subsequently
changed link on any web page, you may find what you want in the Wayback
- Eventually, you will come to an ancestor who you cannot find in the
- possibly because records have not survived
- possibly because of unexpected spelling variations in personal and/or
- possibly because it is not obvious which of many individuals (or parallel
families) sharing a common name (or names) is the right one
- Searching by place may be the easiest way to find or identify your
- Ireland has been partitioned in different ways at many different times in
- Making life simple for future genealogists was not important to those
- Most administrative subdivisions are not signposted today, if they ever
were, and their boundaries are, at best, familiar only to people living
- The existence of signposts generally requires strong local government or
community spirit, and a budget!
- Ideally, selected layers of subdivisions could be superimposed on online
- It is worth investing a little effort to learn about the different
subdivisions and their uses.
- Understanding the system will save money squandered on ordering the wrong
- Local spelling variations can be encountered in placenames as well as
- Concentrate primarily on the PLACE itself on the map, placeNAMEs are
- A good ear and eye for Irish placenames will help to identify the
relevant records, but trial and error may be required, and a good knowledge
of administrative divisions certainly is required.
- Some website designers risk causing confusion by inventing their own new
terms (or even duplicate terms) for historic subdivisions.
- The following tips aim to prevent any possible confusion
An example: where are we?
Here in the
townland of Courtbrack ...
... in St. Michael's civil parish in the barony of Pubblebrien in the county
of Limerick in the province of Munster.
But Courtbrack Avenue was the Municipal Boundary, dividing the townland into
two parts, one within the city limits, the other outside the city limits.
In the 1911 census, the more rural part
of Courtbrack was in Limerick
South Rural District Electoral Division; the more urban part appears to
have been in Dock
Limerick Urban No. 4 DED.
However, Ballinacurra Creek was the western boundary of Limerick No. 4 (St.
Michael's) Registrar's District, which therefore contained all of
We are in the Poor Law Union of Limerick (both pre- and post-Famine).
We are in the Catholic parish of St. Joseph's which
extends "out to the end of Ballinacurra" and is in the Catholic diocese of
We are in the Church of Ireland Union of Limerick
Cathedral (limerick st mary) in the United Dioceses of Limerick
& Killaloe, Ardfert, Aghadoe, Kilfenora, Clonfert, Kilmacduagh and
We are in the probate district of Limerick now served by the Limerick/Clare
district probate registry.
Julius Caesar: Divide and conquer -
divide et impera
- For most genealogical events, there are up to four different associated
- the place where the event happened;
- the place where the event was originally recorded;
- the place where the original record is stored today; and
- the place(s) or website(s) where a manual, photographic or digital
copy (or copies) of the record can be seen.
- In rural areas of Ireland, we can typically identify the townland
in which the event happened.
- In urban areas, we can typically identify the street address at
which the event happened.
- Sometimes renumeration occurs (e.g. Kilrush streets in 1846
Slater's Directory, 1855 Griffith's Valuation, 1901 Census, 1911
- The administrative division(s) in which the genealogical event is or was
recorded and stored depend on
- the townland where the event actually happened;
- the nature of the event; and
- the general time period.
- Unless a person's name is extremely rare, an all-Ireland index will be of
little use, and the appopriate administrative subdivision in which to begin
the search must be identified.
- Once we know the townland, we generally need maps and/or lookup tables to
figure out where to look for the record; see table
All maps and lookup tables relate to a specific date, which should perhaps
be included in the above table. In some rows, the map and lookup table links
are not contemporaneous.
The boundaries of many layers of administrative divisions have been subject
to minor changes over time.
- Let's look briefly at the various layers from the smallest subdivisions
to the largest.
- Pre-Norman origins.
- Boundaries mapped and spellings standardised by Ordnance Survey of Ireland,
Est. 1824, completed 1846.
- Spellings still vary greatly in everyday usage.
- 61,106(ish) townlands at logainm.ie.
- Searchable IreAtlas database re-keyed from
1851 book by John Broderick R.I.P. (aka SeanRuad) (d.2001).
- For each townland, the database shows in which County, Barony, Civil
Parish, Poor Law Union and Province it lies.
- Very few typos in
transcription and in 1851 book.
- Names are not unique: 236 townlands called Glebe.
- Parish name usually used to distinguish between two townlands with the
same name in the same county, e.g. Acres [Drumcreehy], Acres [Feakle],
Acres [Kilmacduane], all in county Clare.
- Townlands divided between different landlords: e.g. Skehanierin (Egan)
and Skehanierin (Stokes) in Kerry; Sallybank (Merritt) and Sallybank
(Parker) in Clare; Ballinacurra (Bowman), Ballinacurra (Hart) and
Ballinacurra (Weston) in Limerick.
- To avoid ambiguity, one must use maps as well as indexes, lists and
- Original maps, e.g. Milltown, St.
Peter's Parish, county Dublin.
- Parish maps, e.g. townlands
in Killard parish.
- Traditional and ancient precursor of postcodes.
- Appear in some parish register entries.
- Appear on birth and death certificates, but not in indexes.
- Used to organise Griffith's Valuation.
- Used to organise 1901 and 1911 census returns.
- Official names not always used locally - e.g. Rhynagonaught, Derryard,
Parkduff, Clohanes and Doughmore near Doonbeg, county Clare, are not
official townland names.
- Of these, Clohanes comprises part or all of four townlands:
Cloonnagarnaun, Cloonmore, Carrowmore and Carrowmore North.
- Subtownland names historically and even today used locally - e.g. in
Clare, Pulleen in
Glascloon, Clifden and Newtown Killeen near Doonbeg; Newtown in
Carrownaweelaun, Oldtown in Knocknagarhoon.
- It is critically important to establish the official name of the townland
in which your ancestors lived and to locate it on the OSI map.
- A recent example: Maurice
Costolo of Knocknamelagh and George
Costello of Pouldheehy.
- The former is Maurice Costelloe of
Kilgulbin East; the latter is grandson of Maurice Costelloe of Ballyhorgan East.
- Small groups of townlands (average c.18 townlands per DED).
- Boundaries established by Poor Law Boundary Commission in 1830s, major
revisions after the Famine.
- Initially, each electoral division elected one or more Poor Law
Guardian (PLG) to the local Board of Guardians (comprising elected and ex
officio guardians) which administered the Workhouse.
- After the post-Famine revisions, each DED elected exactly one
- Multi-seat constituencies were broken down into several smaller
- Post-Famine DEDs did not respect the boundaries of the pre-Famine DEDs,
e.g. in Moyarta civil
parish, county Clare.
- 3,493(ish) electoral divisions at logainm.ie.
- Names sometimes taken from a townland within the DED (e.g. Trienearagh,
county Kerry), sometimes not (e.g. St.
Martins, county Clare).
- Used to organise 1901 and 1911 census returns.
- DED names are not unique - two
Castletowns in County Limerick (facebook
discussion) and two Claudys in County (London)Derry; in 1911, one is
but in 1901 both are spelled Claudy
and therefore merged.
- Names can change - Mount
Elva in 1901 became Ballyvaghan
- DEDs can be broken up - Dysert
in 1901 became Dysert
in 1911 (more details here).
- Also Kilkee
in 1901 became Kilkee
- Since 1994, again known as Electoral Divisions.
- Excellent maps at
- Valuation Office cancelled books are bound by DED.
- Use the census
search form to find the DED in which a given townland lies.
- If your ancestors lived in a DED which shared its name with a townland,
make sure whether or not they lived in that townland itself.
- Small groups of DEDs (approximately 798 in total; average c.5 DEDs per
- Boundaries established under the Medical Charities Act of 1851.
- Used for civil registration
of births, all marriages and deaths from 1 Jan 1864.
- One book for each Dispensary District for births, for marriages and for
deaths held in local (county) registration offices today.
- Each Dispensary District had a Registrar, usually the local dispensary
doctor, who registered births and deaths; the clergy were involved in
registration of marriages.
- Sometimes took names of DEDs (underlined on
maps) and/or townlands within their boundaries.
- Often took now obscure names, e.g. in county Clare: Annacarriga (includes
Killaloe), Killanniv (includes Kilmaley), Coolacasey (includes
Sixmilebridge), Cragaknock (includes Mullagh).
- Use the map to
find the Dispensary District in which a given DED lies.
- Appear on birth and death certificates, but not in civil registration
- e.g., births
in Ballyhorgan from familysearch.org Ireland Births and Baptisms (1860s
- Dispensary District boundaries usually respect DED boundaries, but not in
the case of Fontstown/Monasterevin/Athy.
- If Ireland Births and Baptisms shows a three-digit page number (often
misrecorded as a christening location), then the placename always refers to
the Dispensary District.
- Further discussion on Clare
Past Forum and Clare
County Library website.
- For people with common names, knowing the Dispensary District makes it
easier to locate the relevant birth records (1864-1881).
- At rootsireland.ie, dispensary districts are referred to, quite
misleadingly, as "Civil Parish / District", as "Parish / District" and as
"the Parish field".
- Under Poor Law (in England), care of the poor was traditionally based on
- PLUs were (roughly) unions of parishes brought together to care for the
poor, each with its own workhouse.
- Boundaries of the original 130 PLUs were established by the Poor Law
Boundary Commission in the late 1830s.
- But parish and county boundaries were not always respected.
- e.g., in county Clare, Kilfinaghta parish was initially split between
Limerick and Ennis PLUs, with the Ennis part later transferred to Tulla and
finally Scarriff PLUs.
- Board of Guardians oversaw the running of the PLU.
- Used for pre-1864 civil marriage indexes.
- Boundaries of administrative divisions often changed over time!
- Pre-Famine Poor Law Unions in County Clare:
- The system could not cope with famine conditions: see another
- 33 new PLUs were created: see yet another
- Use the townland
index (1851) to find the post-Famine PLU in which a given townland
- For example, Tulla PLU formally came into
being on 22 February 1850, created from the eastern part of the Ennis Union
and the south-western part of the Scariff Union.
- In 1907, Clare County Council proposed the amalgamation of the Tulla and
- So some townlands were in Ennis to 1850, in Tulla from 1850 to 1907, and
in Scariff after 1907!
- In the later years of Griffith's Valuation, the Valuation was printed one
PLU at a time, so all entries within the PLU refer to the same date
- Post-Famine PLU appears as Registration District in Civil
Registration Indexes of BMDs (see sample page from original
index (1866)), so search by PLU
- e.g., only
five registrations in Tulla after 1908 (transcription errors or late
- With uncommon surnames, one can sometimes deduce that all occurences of a
name in a PLU are a single family, e.g. Brew
births in Killadysert
- Post-Famine Poor Law Unions in County Clare:
Source of images: The Poor Law Records of Counties Limerick, Clare and
Tipperary by S.C. O’Mahony. Supplement to North Munster Antiquarian
Journal vol. XXI 1979 via clarelibrary.ie.
- 2,568(ish) civil parishes in Ireland at logainm.ie
- Parishes a little bigger on average than DEDs
- Of early Christian origin
- Used as the basis of Tithe
Applotment Books (1823-1837)
- Used by the Established Church (Church of Ireland to 1800, United
Church of England and Ireland (1801-1870)), Anglican Church - but
parishes with small Anglican populations combined into Unions from an early
- Boundaries mapped and spellings standardised by Ordnance Survey of
- Civil parish boundaries may not respect townland boundaries:
- The townlands of Ballintogher and Dunguib on the Waldron estate at Helen Park
and the adjoining townland of Springhill on the Hemphill estate in county
Tipperary all straddle the boundary between the civil parishes of Graystown
- Civil parish boundaries may not respect county boundaries: e.g. St.
Munchin's, St. Patrick's and Killeely all straddle the boundary between
counties Clare and Limerick which causes confusion
on the Tithe
Applotment Books website
(1837) says that Stradbally civil parish (Castleconnell) straddled the
boundary between counties Limerick and Tipperary, but the townland index
and OSI maps
- There are 81
civil parishes wholly or partially in county Clare.
Reaching Out has its own ideas about Clare parishes (103):
- Ballyvaughan listed in addition to Drumcreehy/Ballyvaughan,
Gleninagh/Ballyvaughan and Rathborney/Ballyvaughan
- Cratloe listed in addition to Kilfintinan and Killeely
- New Quay listed in addition to Abbey and Oughtmama
- Newmarket-on-Fergus listed in addition to Bunratty, Tomfinlough,
Kilnasoolagh, Drumline, Clonloghan and Kilmaleery, but Kilconry
- Clonrush also listed as Whitegate
- Drumcliff also listed as Ennis
- Feakle also listed as Caher Feakle
- Inchicronan also listed as Crusheen
- Kilfarboy also listed as Miltown Malbay
- Kilfearagh also listed as Kilkee
- Kilfinaghta also listed as Sixmilebridge
- Killimer also listed as Knockera [sic]
- Killuran also listed as O'Callaghan's Mills
- Kilmacrehy also listed as Liscannor
- Kilmanaheen also listed as Ennistymon
- Kilmoon also listed as Lisdoonvarna
- Kilseily also listed as Broadford
- Moyarta also listed as Carrigaholt
- Moynoe also listed as Scarriff
- St. Patrick's also listed as Parteen (but not as Meelick)
- Beagh coming soon
- St. Senan's (which one?) coming soon
- County Clare included in the list of parishes
- Use the townland index to find the
civil parish in which a given townland lies
- Catholic and civil parisheshave both evolved from the same original
mediaeval parishes; their boundaries have diverged post-Reformation
- Gerard Curtin in Every Field Had a Name: The Place-names of West
Limerick (Sliabh Luachra Historical Society, 2012) writes (p.2):
The details on Catholic parish boundaries are taken from research work
done by the Limerick Archives and Family Ancestry when they were in
operation at The Granary, Michael Street, Limerick. Some of their
research may not be seen as correct in a small number of parishes, as in
my travels I came across varied opinions of Catholic parish boundaries.
In cases it was put forward that people in certain areas were paying
church dues to a certain parish or playing football or hurling with
another parish. However, where townlands are divided between parishes the
whole situation was locally generally confused and it was decided to let
the research stand ... the boundaries of the civil parishes and the later
Catholic parishes were in almost all cases totally different.
- Often known by the name of the main town or village
- e.g., Kilfearagh/Kilkee, Killard/Doonbeg, Moyarta/Carrigaholt,
- Most rural Irish parishes actually have at least three names:
- (mediaeval) parish name
- (modern) town or village name
- the saint(s) (etc) to whom the church(es) in the parish are dedicated
(mainly used by the diaspora, mainly in U.S. cities, who have grown up
with an affiliation to their urban parish and the associated saint(s)
(etc); it generally rings no bells with the native Irish living outside
- Two or more adjoining parishes were often split or merged
- See table with examples from
`Kilrush Poor Law Union and the Parishes of West Clare' in the Clare
Association Yearbook 2014 pp.46-50.
- Catholic parishes hown on irishgenealogy.ie
as Parish/Church/Congregation when the Area is (RC)
- Marriages traditionally took place in the bride's home parish
- Many new brides also returned to their mothers' homes and parishes for
the birth and baptism of their first child
- But once railway transport became commonplace, strong farmers and the
merchant class often travelled to a more fashionable big town or city for
weddings, e.g. Ennis, Limerick, Dublin, even London, nowadays Italy
- Check whether the townland in which your ancestors lived was always in
the same Catholic parish that it is in today
- If PLU and Dispensary District boundaries did not respect parish
boundaries, then marriages in the local church could be registered in a
different PLU or Dispensary District from home births and deaths
- e.g., there are eight
townlands in Kilmurry Ibrickan civil parish which lie in Ennistimon
Poor Law Union, with the remainder of the civil parish, including the
churches, in Kilrush PLU
- traditionally every diocese had access to the coast or major inland
waterways, so that the Bishop could travel to Rome without passing through
- Diocesan boundaries respect parish boundaries!
- 26 Catholic dioceses in Ireland at Catholic-Hierarchy
- 12 Anglican
- see map of
Catholic Archdioceses, Dioceses and Provinces
- e.g., Killaloe is both a town in county Clare and a diocese extending over parts of
counties Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Offaly and Laois, extending almost
(but not quite) as far as Borris-in-Ossory
in the Diocese of
- Canon Law gives parish clergy responsibility for Catholic parish
registers, but they are usually influenced by diocesan policy
- 346 baronies at logainm.ie (average c.7 parishes per
- may not respect other boundaries, e.g. Knocknahooan
townland (Moyarta/Clonderalaw) or Kilmacduane parish (Acres townland in
Ibrickan; remainder in Moyarta)
districts, set up in 1858, appear to have respected baronial
boundaries, but not county boundaries
- In the earlier years of Griffith's Valuation, the Valuation was printed
one barony at a time, so all entries within the barony refer to the same
- used in lists of freeholders
- e.g. 1821
- each barony was policed by a high constable
- fell into disuse after introduction of the Irish Constabulary and
especially of county councils in 1898
- Ireland was shired in the middle ages (Kerry and Wicklow in around 1606
were the last counties formally established)
- The only mention of counties (or any administrative subdivisions of the
State other than Dáil constituencies) in the Constitution
is the right of Councils to nominate candidates for the presidency
- Article 28A, inserted in 1999, provides for local government, but not for
any associated administrative subdivisions
- traditionally 32 counties
- "County Fingal" established c.1994, signposts didn't last long
- County Councils established 1898
- The area around Whitegate and Mountshannon moved from county Galway to
county Clare in 1898 (Clonrush parish and most of Inishcaltra parish)
- Based on a mixture of diocesan and county boundaries
- Different boundaries for different religious denominations
- e.g., St. Paul's Catholic parish in Dublin part of Swords Heritage Centre; St.
Paul's Church of Ireland parish part of irishgenealogy.ie
"City or Town" for "Last Permanent Residence" and/or "Place of Birth" on
Ellis Island Manifests
- Four McNamara siblings from the townland of Moveen West in the DED of
Moveen, dispensary district of Carrigaholt, parish of Moyarta, barony of
Moyarta, Poor Law Union of Kilrush, and County of Clare all gave their Last
Permanent Residence as Ireland, Kilkee. Catherine and Annie gave their
Place of Birth as Ireland, Kilkee, but John and Martin gave theirs as
- Probably the same as Post
Town, as listed in Jane
Lyons's Catholic Parish index based
on A Complete Catholic Registry, Directory and Almanack (1836
- Four or five? (Meath)
- County boundaries are respected
- Galway were 2012 Leinster Hurling Champions!
- Four, one under each archdiocese (see map)
- Diocesan boundaries are respected
- Boundaries reviewed after each census
- Cuid a Dó last published 1985
- 01, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07/09
- A future genealogical source (after mobiles replace landlines!)
DED provides good examples of most of the anomalies that can arise in
dealing with Irish administrative divisions. Doonbeg DED comprises eight
townlands. Doonbeg townland is divided into two parts for the 1911 census,
Doonbeg Town and plain Doonbeg, the rural part of the townland. In local
usage, parts of Doonbeg townland are known by local names such as
Rhynagonaught. Five of the eight townlands are in Killard civil parish and
the other three in Kilmacduane civil parish. The Killard townlands and one
of the Kilmacduane townlands (Acres) are in Ibrickan barony; the other two
Kilmacduane townlands are in Moyarta barony. Three of the Killard townlands
(Cloonmore, Carrowmore and Carrowmore North), along with Cloonnagarnaun in
Cloonadrum DED, are known locally as Clohanes, and are separated from the
rest of Killard parish by the Scivileen river. The road from Clohanes to
the rest of Doonbeg parish goes through Kilmacduane parish. The area in
Killard civil parish known locally as Clohanes can be confused with the
townland of Cloghaundine in the civil parish of Kilmacrehy, a few parishes
up the coast, also known locally as Clohanes. The two places known locally
as Clohanes are both in county Clare, but the one in Killard civil parish
is in the Catholic diocese of Killaloe and the one in Kilmacrehy civil
parish is the Catholic diocese of Galway. Back in Killard civil parish,
there is also atownland called Carrowmore South, which does not adjoin
Carrowmore North townland, and is in Knocknagore DED.
- This talk has been largely a top-down approach; for a bottom-up case
study of Moyarta civil
parish in county Clare see the Ireland Reaching Out website.
- Summary: In rural areas, the townland is the smallest unit and only
rarely is a townland divided between larger units, such as parishes. So
always give the address as the townland. If there are multiple townlands
with the same name, then you must also give some larger unit to identify it
uniquely. If there is only one townland of the name in a county, give the
address as [Townland], county [County]. If there is more than one townland
of the name in the county, then give the address as [Townland], [Parish]
parish, county [County].
- A family history is never finished!
- Keep trying to go back another generation
- Explore new sources
- Trace the emigrants
- Add current births, marriages and deaths
- Do a one name study
- for an unsual surname, because it is easy to document everyone of
- for a common surname, because the easiest way to prove that a record
relates to your ancestor is to prove that it doesn't relate to any of
his or her unrelated contemporary namesakes
- Genetic genealogy