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All births, marriages and deaths occurring since 1864 (and Church of Ireland marriages occurring since 1 April 1845) should be on record in the General Register Office, 8-11 Lombard Street East, Dublin 2.
For the period before 1864, local PARISH REGISTERS provide the only record of most baptism (not births), marriages and very rarely deaths. Catholic parish registers are normally still held by the local parish priest, but there are microfilms of most of them for the period up to 1880 in the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Written permission of the Bishop in Kerry is required if you or someone on your behalf want to view Kerry parish record films in the National Library in Dublin. Don't worry this is easy to do. At times they have limited your request to five parishes, but have not always followed that restriction. So have your parish names ready if asked. You may write, telephone or fax to this address, who then will fax the National Library in Dublin where microfilm of the parishes are held:
Most Rev. William Murphy, D.D., Bishop of Kerry,
Bishop's House, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Tel. 064 31168 Fax. 064 31364
Note: If you are going to Dublin and wish to research Kerry records, allow enough time for the permission to reach the National Library. Be as specific as possible with the parish or area. A fellow researcher wrote this:
"I received a letter from his Diocesan Secretary, Rev. Gearoid Walsh with permission to look at the microfilm (but only for the specific parishes I listed) at the National Library in Dublin, but not the original records in parishes. The National Library will take the letter from you, so make a copy for your records."
Although the Bishop can grant permission regarding microfilm records, it is still left up to the discretion of the Parish Priest to let someone look at the locally kept parish registers. Quite often there are no death records, only baptism and marriage logs. It would be helpful to know some Latin as quite often that's the language the given names are written in along with some church information.
Due to frequent changes in reassignments of parish priests, it may not be wise to address your query to a particular priest as your letter may follow him wherever he is. It may be more useful to send your query to:
Parish Priest
(Local Church Name)
Townland (no street address is necessary)
County Kerry
Ireland
You can start your letter with:
Dear Reverend Father,
**Please** be patient and considerate when contacting the parish priests, they are very over worked and do not have enough time for their own parishioners. Some cover more than their own parish. It may be hard for us to accept, but it is NOT their job to do research for us. A donation to the church might be appreciated and may be a justification to the priest to take the time away from his usual duties to do this for you as it would be helping his church. Please be aware that the research you request can be very time consuming. Time they may not have. So be as precise as possible... i.e. do not ask him to look up "all the O'Connors" in his parish! Remember the records may be 150 years old, often in faded handwriting on decaying pages in Latin. Also know, unfortunately, a donation accepted does not always garner even a response at times.
If you go in person, it might be a good idea to make an appointment. It seems strange to even have to say this but I've heard stories of very inconsiderate, ungrateful even rude researchers demanding the parish priest let them in. I've also heard of researchers left alone with the records, tearing out the pages and leaving with them! So you might understand their reluctance, and therefore don't automatically expect to be allowed to view the registers, especially not alone. So please be gracious and say thank you to leave a good impression (think of those of us to follow too)!
Note: There are many village churches and chapels within each Catholic parish. What you want to do is write to the main parish church where the parish registers from all the village churches are kept not in the small chapels and churches also found in that parish. The following are the addresses and phone numbers of those main parish churches. Also, it is not unusual at all not to have a street address in Ireland, especially in these small townlands. I've been told the Irish are very proud of their postal system and try very hard to get the mail to where its addressed. Remember the Civil parish names sometimes but not always are the same as the Catholic parish names... and they may or may not cover the same area.
Do you know your ancestors' Civil parish but not the Catholic parish? Click here:
Civil Parishes vs Roman Catholic Parishes
Once you know which Roman Catholic parish Locate the appropriate name below, followed by the mailing address and phone number:
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Abbeydorney RC Parish:
St Bernard's Church
Church of the Sacred Heart
St. Brendan's Church
St. Michael the Archangel
Saint John's Church
Saint Teresa's Church
St. Vincent's Church
Saint Mary's Church
Church of Michael the Archangel
Church of the Immaculate Conception
St. Carthage's Church
Holy Cross, O'Connell Memorial Church
Saint Crohan's Church
St. Mary's Church
Church of SS Stephen and John
*Church of St. Gobnait :
St. John the Baptist Church
Sacretist (Records)
St. Brigid's Church
Church of St. Gertrude
Christ the Prince of Peace |
Glenbeigh RC Parish:
St. James' Church
Church of St. Agatha
Holy Cross Church
Our Lady Of Lourdes Church
St. Patrick's Church
St Mary's Cathedral
Church of the Immaculate Conception
Saint James Church
St Mary's Church
St Mary's Church
Saint Michael's Church
Church of the Sacred Heart
Church of the Assumption
St Joseph's Church
St. Michael's Church
Church of the Purification
Saint Mary's Church
Church of St. John the Baptist
St. Killian's Church
Church of the Immaculate Conception Knightstown,Valentia
St. Finian's Church |
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*Castlemaine RC Parish - Suggestion: You might want to use the phone number on this one first before you send a request with a donation, as in the past, despite accepting a donation, you may just get a suggestion to contact the Killarney Genealogical Center (which is closed at present). Thanks to KerryKate for her input. If you need help with your research, Kate is formerly from Kerry - check out her website: Kerry Routes / Lost Trails |
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