RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Louth => Topic started by: alexb123 on Thursday 04 July 13 17:08 BST (UK)
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Hello,
Whilst at the nli, I found a marriage for Patrick Dolan and Margaret McQuillan at Termonfeckin in 1839. The Termonfeckin records there only start in 1823, so I could not go back to the births of either party. Is there any other Termonfeckin resources I could use to find the birth dates, place of birth and/or parents of the couple?
Thanks in anticipation.
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Your dates are well before the start of civil registration, so church records are usually the only option when it comes to searching for specific details like baptisms for individuals. 1823 is doing quite well, as the average starting date for a rural RC parish would be about 1830. Sometimes further family information is available for Landed Gentry etc, i.e. those very well off, and major land owners, etc. but for ordinary people the church records are as far back as you can get with regard to specifics on people.
You can sometimes establish more general information from other resources e.g. by locating possible connections with people of the same surname and maybe familiar first-names on the same area on the slightly earlier Tithe records.
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Hi Shane,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I would like to look at the tithe records you mention, are they available online? I also wondered whether there might be any graveyard inscriptions for Termonfeckin that might be of use, or would this also be too early?
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I would like to look at the tithe records you mention, are they available online? ...
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yes, on the National Archives website - see :
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/
did the marriage, or any of their children's baptisms mention the name of a townland ?
(The RC parish contained several civil parishes)
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Hi Shane,
I have only found two baptisms both girls, six years apart, neither record mentions a townland, nor does the marriage record. However the marriage record of one of the daughters mentioned Curstown.
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....the marriage record of one of the daughters mentioned Curstown.
The townland of Curstown consists of about 215 acres and is in the civil parish of Termonfeckin. It appears to be about 3km north of the town of Termonfeckin.
I'll see if I can loctate the townland on the Tithes...
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here's the listing for the townland of Curstown in 1830 - two Dolans, a Patrick and James. They could be relations of your Patrick, or might even be him if he held the property before he married.
Curstown townland, 1830 (http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?surname=&firstname=&county=Louth&townland=Curstown&parish=Termonfeckin&search=Search&sort=last_name_sort&pageSize=10)
No sign of any McQuillans occupying agricultural land in the townland, but there are a few in the civil parish, so nearby :
McQui*l*n, Termonfeckin civil parish (http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?surname=Mcqui*l*n&firstname=&county=Louth&parish=Termon*&townland=&search=Search)
(Carstown is a separate townland in the same parish)
Note the Tithes mainly cover agricultural land, so dont cover all properties.
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Hi Shane,
Thank you for your help, I was hoping to find a 'family name' amongst the entries.
The descendants of this couple have had lots of daughters and very few sons, so it's hard to find a connection. I don't know of anyone called James amongst the descendants. So, Patrick looks more promising, but other than the Patrick married in 1939, I have not yet found any other Patrick. However I think the Dolans are definitely from Curstown, as termonfeckinhistory.ie shows the Leonard and Farrell families in the same area, and they have appeared as in-laws, witnesses and sponsors to several Dolan descendants.
http://www.termonfeckinhistory.ie/townlands_and_placenames_11.html
I dont know where to start with the McQuillans/ McQuillins. There are such a lot of them in the area, and I'm not sure who might be connected to Margaret. Again there are no clues in the names, all are unfamiliar, with the exception of Catherine, the name of one of the couple's grandchildren
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A McQuillan thread posted a year ago mentions Sandpit RC church in connection with the family. I can't seem to find this church on the nli list or roots ireland, does anyone know whether the church has another name please?
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sorry - think I was looking at the wrong McQuillan record. Do you have a link to the other thread ?
records are kept by parish, so if that church you mentioned is a chapel of ease, you need to check for it's corresponding parish to see if there are records.
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Hi Shane,
It's the post by 'hallmark, it mentions Sandpit and Ballymackenny churches.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,581087.0.html
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I'm pretty sure that the church being referred to in that thread is the one at Milltown townland just west of Termonfeckin. It was a chapel of ease for the parish.
see: Sandpit / Milltown RC Chapel (http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,711622,781790,6,7) (c1837)
Extract of description of the RC parish of Termonfeckin from Lewis 1837 : '..In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, comprising also the [civil] parish of Beaulieu, and parts of the [civil] parishes of Ballymakenny and Drumshallon; there are two chapels, one in the village, and one at Sandpit, both small buildings..'
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Hi Shane,
Thanks for the information about Sandpit RC Church. I'm sorry to be a bit thick, but are you saying that Sandpit BMD records, along with Beaulieu, Ballymackenny and Drumshallon are all within Termonfeckin at the nli/rootsireland or is each a seperate record?
Would a chapel of ease like Sandpit have a graveyard?
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I think I may have answered my own question about a graveyard at Sandpit. There doesn't seem to be one there on google earth.
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yes - records are kept by parish, so that's what you need to look for on the NLI Index, RootsIreland etc, in this case Termonfeckin. That townland of Milltown and chapel at Sandpit, are in Termonfeckin civil parish, so as well as the townlands in the civil parish of Termonfeckin, the RC parish contained the townlands in the civil parish of Beaulieu and parts of the other two civil parishes mentioned.
Priests at Chapels of ease sometimes had separate notebooks for records or even separate registers, but any details should have been transferred to the actual parish register. There might be notes still in local custody, but probably a very long shot... and in any case I think doubtful they would go back any further than the parish records.
I dont see a graveyard at that church on historic or recent maps.
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Thanks Shane
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there doesn't seem to be a graveyard at the RC (parish) church in the town either - so there's probably one somewhere nearby. Possibly that one at Ballymackenny mentioned in the other thread..