Irish Parishes & Their Shifting Boundaries

10:45am Friday 22 August 2014

STRAND HOTEL - Shannon Suite

by Paddy Waldron

WWW version:

http://www.pwaldron.info/parishes/

Introduction

• The mantra of Larry Brennan (founder of Clare Roots Society):

  Genealogy is about names, dates and places.
  These are the bones; family history is the flesh on those bones.

• For most genealogical events, there are up to four different associated places:
  • 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 Ireland, one must generally identify the relevant parish or parishes.
• If a precise location is known, then the relevant civil parish can be read from the Ordnance Survey of Ireland map, but further research is often required.
• As boundaries have shifted over time, all parish maps and lookup tables relate to a specific date, which will be included in good maps and tables.

An example: where are we?

Here in the townland of Stonetown in the civil parish of St. Nicholas in the Municipal Borough of Limerick in the county of Limerick in the province of Munster.

We are in the Catholic parish of Our Lady Of The Rosary in the Catholic diocese of Limerick.

We are in the Church of Ireland Limerick City Parish in the United Dioceses of Limerick & Killaloe, Ardfert, Aghadoe, Kilfenora, Clonfert, Kilmacduagh and Emly.

Julius Caesar: Divide and conquer - divide et impera

• Ireland has been partitioned in different ways at many different times in history.
• Making life simple for future genealogists was not important to those creating records.
• Most parish boundaries and other administrative subdivisions are not signposted today, if they ever were, and their boundaries are, at best, familiar only to people living locally.
• 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 maps.
• 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 records.
• Local spelling variations can be encountered in placenames as well as personal names.
• Concentrate primarily on the PLACE itself on the map, placeNAMEs are secondary.
• 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.

Types of parishes

The separation of Church and State, the Reformation, and later splits within churches, have all been responsible for the shifting of boundaries and the evolution of up to four different usages of the word "parish":

Old or historic or mediaeval parishes

As far as nationwide maps and documentation are concerned, these commonly used terms are effectively pre-historic. They are of early Christian origin.

Civil parishes

Boundaries were mapped and spellings standardised by Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Est. 1824, completed 1846. Spellings still vary greatly in everyday usage.

Catholic parishes

Tweaked continually in accordance with shifting populations of priests and people, at best maps of Catholic parish boundaries can be found at diocesan level.

Parishes of the Established Church

The established church was called the United Church of England and Ireland (at least on marriage certificates) from the Acts of Union of 1801 (implemented 1 Jan 1801) to the Irish Church Act of 1869 (implemented 1 Jan 1871). In principle, it used civil parishes. In practice, in areas of small Anglican population, the established church often combined several civil parishes into a Union. Lewis's Topography (1837) provides details. For example, from 1777 up to at least 1837 the civil parishes of Kilballyowen, Kilfearagh and Moyarta, all formed part of the union of Kilrush. Baptisms, marriages and burials from all four civil parishes are found in the Kilrush registers. The oldest Kilrush registers (up to 1842) are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. The newer registers (1842 to closure) are in the custody of the Incumbent of Drumcliffe in Ennis. Shortly after Lewis's Topography was published, the town of Kilkee in the parish of Kilfearagh developed into `the Brighton of the West', with a new parish church, and regained its independence.

In the 19th century in the different countries of the (not-so-)United Kingdom, systems of administrative divisions varied widely.

In England, the smallest unit was the parish, which evolved from the mediaeval feudal manor. Civil and ecclesiastical parishes there began to diverge in the 19th century. Under Poor Law (in England), care of the poor was traditionally based on parishes.

In Ireland, parishes were further subdivided into one or more townlands, generally with pre-Norman origins. In the 1830s, Irish parishes were combined into Poor Law Unions by the Poor Law Boundary Commission, as they were generally too small to each have a parish workhouse, like parishes in England. Parish and county boundaries were not always respected by the Commission. For example, in county Clare, Kilfinaghta parish was initially split between Limerick and Ennis PLUs, with the latter part in Ennis to 1850, in Tulla from 1850 to 1907, and in Scariff after 1907!

• Townlands and parishes are listed in various online databases, including the 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.
• For each parish, the database shows in which Barony, PLU and Province it lies.
• Very few typos in transcription and in 1851 book.
• Names are not unique: e.g. four counties include one or more parishes named Dysert, and county Clare alone has three parishes named Kilmurry.
• The parish of Knock in County Meath comprises just one townland, also called Knock.
• To avoid ambiguity, one must use maps as well as indexes, lists and databases.
• Parish maps, e.g. townlands in Killard parish.
• Used to organise Griffith's Valuation.

Parish boundaries are not used for either census returns or civil registration. For these purposes, the map of each Poor Law Union was typically wiped clean and new boundaries drawn (dispensary districts and within them district electoral divisions), not respecting parish boundaries. Parish names, but not parish boundaries, were often used for dispensary districts or DEDs or both.

Even dispensary district boundaries do not always respect DED boundaries, e.g. Fontstown/Monasterevin/Athy.

When Poor Law Union boundaries were redrawn after the Great Famine and in connection with the Medical Charities Act of 1851, civil parish boundaries were generally not respected, but Catholic parish boundaries were sometimes taken into account (e.g. the boundary between Mullagh and Miltown Malbay Catholic parishes in county Clare - see below).

• Pre-Famine Poor Law Unions in County Clare:

• 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.

Civil Parishes

• 2,565(ish) civil parishes in Ireland at logainm.ie
• Used as the basis of Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1837)
• 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 and Killenaule
• 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
• Lewis (1837) says that Stradbally civil parish (Castleconnell) straddled the boundary between counties Limerick and Tipperary, but the townland index and OSI maps show otherwise
• Use the townland index to find the civil parish in which a given townland lies

Catholic Parishes

• Catholic and civil parishes have both evolved from the same original mediaeval parishes
• Their boundaries began to diverge post-Reformation.
• The Penal Laws created a scarcity of priests, resulting in mergers of parishes.
• Boundaries have diverged further post-Ordnance Survey.
• Catholic Emancipation in 1829 produced a Devotional Revolution with a great increase in the number of priests, allowing smaller parishes.
• The 20th century collapse in religious vocations is causing the procedure to be reversed.
• Most parishes contain several churches with shared sacramental registers.
• 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, Kilballyowen/Cross
• To avoid confusion, I use a different name for the Catholic parish and for the civil parish whenever a choice exists.
• 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 the parish)
• But the National Library of Ireland in its parish register list for Killaloe diocese also does this listing Kilrush under St. Senan's.
• There are several churches in St. Senan's parish, and many St. Senan's churches in other parishes, as he is the patron saint of West Clare.
• 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 are shown 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

Dioceses or Areas (at irishgenealogy.ie)

• traditionally every diocese had access to the coast or major inland waterways, so that the Bishop could travel to Rome without passing through another diocese
• Diocesan boundaries respect parish boundaries!
• 26 Catholic dioceses in Ireland at Catholic-Hierarchy
• 12 Anglican dioceses
• 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 Ossory.
• Canon Law gives parish clergy responsibility for Catholic parish registers, but they are usually influenced by diocesan policy

Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF) Centres (at rootsireland.ie)

• 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

Catholic Provinces

• Four, one under each archdiocese (see map)
• Diocesan boundaries are respected

Anglican Provinces

• Only two (see map)

Examples

• A recent North American visitor to St. Benedict's church in Coolmeen in the old parish of Kilfiddane in county Clare, who had emailed the parish priest in advance of his visit, spoke with a lady in the admin building adjoining the church. He was looking for information on his ancestral family, but was told that no records dating back to his family's time of residence are available.

  This is not strictly accurate and he should have been referred to Kildysart parish, as per this extract from Genealogical Office manuscript 641 in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. which indicates the discrepancies between civil and Catholic parish boundaries in the Diocese of Killaloe:

  12. Kiladysert - This parish was in union with Kilfiddane (No. 13 infra) up to May 1868 when they were severed. The line of severance does not exactly coincide with the old parish line. Thus a portion of Cahircon is now included in Kildysert parish although it belongs to the ancient parish of Kilfiddane. The registers of this parish contain the entries for the area contained in Kilfiddane parish up to the date of severance. The Baptismal Register is in 3 vol.s. No.1 is old and hard to decipher in parts and the year is omitted from many entries. It covers the years July 1829/November 1866. There are two gaps viz: Oct. 1856/May 1859, Dec. 1860/June 1861. Vol. 2 covers Nov. 1866/Dec. 30th 1913. It is in good preservation. Vol. 3 commences Jan 1st 1914 and continues in use. The Marriage Register commences 1867. The Liber Defunctorum begins 1938. The parish now contains the area of the old parish of the same name save as noted.

  13. Kilfiddane - Contains the old parish of the same name save as noted in No. 12 supra. It was severed from No. 12 in 1868. It is now sometimes called the parish of Coolmeen and Cranny. The Baptismal Register commences 15th August 1868. The Marriage Register commences 8th January 1869. No gaps are noted.

  Today, the same parish priest is again in charge of both Killadysert and Kilfiddane.

  A further complication is trying to find the Killadysert microfilm in the familysearch.org catalogue.

• Doonbeg 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. Carrowmore South townland, which does not adjoin Carrowmore North townland, is in Knocknagore DED but still in Killard civil parish.
• 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.
• Only this sort of bottom-up approach can make the vast store of local knowledge available around the country easily available to researchers worldwide with Irish roots.