Genealogy Chat

OC You will find that the original parish registers remain with the churches and just the microfilmed copies are with the National Library of Ireland in Kildare Street Dublin. It has always been like that ever since I have been researching in the NLI over many years. Janet

Just checked - this particular film covers 1811-1881 for most events, in the Boyle Barony, which covers Roscommon, for various Roman Catholic Parishes.(Lots of villages) The original is held in Dublin Library and the LDS have filmed it with their permission. OC

Sorry....didn't expect any more replies.. No special source.............Just typed Mary Gray 1816 plus/minus 5 for Rosscommon on IGI and 3 there...All noted as Roman Catholic and two from Killucan in Rosscommon.... Cheers Colin

You may well find that the Catholic Baptismal Records for Roscommon only started 1820. Most Irish Catholic Records started around the 1820's. A few counties started earlier. Tipperary started 1798 and Waterford started around 1770ish but these are the earliest. You can check this out by googling Genuki Ireland to see when the Roscommon Records started. Protestant Irish Parish Records, where they do exist, do go back to the 1600's, but unfortunately many of these Protestant Records had been deposited in the Dublin Forecourts, which were badly damaged during the Civil War of 1922. Few Catholic Parish registers were deposited in Dublin, so most of these are intact with the original churches, with the microfilm copies in NLI Dublin, and some but not all with the LDS. Catholicism was an outlawed religion until 1829 Emancipation Act although there was much leniency from about 1770 onwards. Ireland was always fiercely RC even during this period so some counties did get earlier records. Janet

Thanks OC. I had hoped Colin had found a special source of info; one that those of us who live 50 miles from the nearest LDS could access! M

Marie The birth does appear as an extracted record on the IGI, with a C batch number. In the usual IGI fashion, it does not tell you the name of the Church and has styled all the records for this extraction as 'Roman Catholic Roscommon' I have seen similar 'superfluous' information on English extractions, Over Darwen Lower Chapel Independent being one which particularly annoys me as there were TWO chapels in the area, one called Lower Chapel and the other called Over Darwen Chapel - which do they mean? (A rhetorical question, I have worked it out) OC

Where are you finding these births in Roscommon , Colin? M

Correction: I've just had a look at the LDS catalogue, and they only seem to have parish records for Roscommon from 1820-1881. For records before that I think you'd have to contact the parish priest direct, assuming you know which parish it is.

What refers to the records as Roman Catholic? A transcription you've found on the Internet? As I understand it, not all that many Protestant records have survived in Ireland, whereas most RC parish records have, so the ones you're interested in are very likely to be RC. It isn't difficult to access Irish RC parish records - if you want to check them yourself, you can order the microfilm from your nearest LDS Centre.

The description Roman Catholic is not irrelevant at this time, when the Roman Catholics were very anxious to distance themselves from the Anglo-Catholic movement. I don't know much about Irish History so I am not sure when the Church of Ireland (protestant) came into being, but Roman Catholics would, as I said, have been very anxious NOT to be thought anything but Roman Catholic. And I think that if this description Roman Catholic appears in the notes of a transcription, it is a hint to researchers that it may well be difficult to access the original records! OC

Thanks again for your replies, Seems a little clearer now.......also for some reason it refers to the records as Roman Catholic...but I would have thought that irrellevant.

Don't forget that many priests had a very poor grasp of Latin, just enough to write in a Register, and routinely added an M, or an IS, or whatever they thought might be appropriate. Entries in Latin are not necessarily grammatically correct! OC

Some Irish priests seem to use the accusative case (-m) for the parents, so I think it's a safe bet that your Mariam is actually Maria (Latin for Mary).

Thank you Janet, It was Mariam and in Googling the name I came across quite a few inluding the Mariam who issues the scam letters about getting money out of Africa.. But if it is Mary and not Marion then I will not rule her out Cheers Colin

Maria - Mary Johannis - of John Brigidae - of Bridget Would have expected Maria filia Johannis et Brigidae, rather than MariaM Jay

I have been searching for a birth in Roscommon for Mary Grey........c1816....have found the above Mariam but not sure if Mariam would change to Mary in England....