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There
are a number of links below some of which will bring you directly
to an index page for the years as listed on the link and others
to a page for that parish, depending on how much material has been
transcribed for any parish.
In
theory parish records are supposed to contain a certain amount of
information:
Baptsms
: Name of child, name of father, name and maiden name of mother,
townland they lived in, date of birth and date of baptism, plus
the names of two sponsors.
Marriages:
Name of Groom and Bride, townland that each resided in at time of
marriage, the names of the parents of each, including the mother's
maiden name, the townland that the parents lived in if different
from that of residence for the bride and groom at time of marriage,
date of marriage plus the names of two witnesses.
Theory
and reality are two different things and I have rarely found any
set of parish records with all the information listed above.
Reality:
Quality as regards whether or not a set of parish records are clear
and easy to read varies from almost impossible with ink terribly
faded and the handwriting all over the place to neat with ink still
strong on the page. It is possible to go to a set of records for
1789 and find them clear and easily transcribable to a set of records
for the same parish covering the 1870's and only be able to barely
make out the names listed.
Details
given vary, a marriage record may just have the name of the bride
and groom and a date, nothing more.
Many
records do not contain the name of the townland that the bride,
groom or child came from. Many records are nigh on illigible.
The
year or years indexes as presented here will tell you whether or
not all baptisms or marriages for any particular period have been
transcribed. Listed at the top of any index are the questionmarks,
for some it will be that I could not make out a name or a surname
for the child or man getting married, for others it will be a whole
line of questionmarks meaning that I could not make out anything
in the record on the film. So long as these questionmarks are included,
then you will get some idea of how difficult it is to read a film
and if you don't see the name you are looking for in my index, then
it might just be one of those questionable entries.
Few
parish records are easy to read and there are always questionmarks.
In those cases where a number of years have been transcribed then
an attempt has been made to 'match' up a questionable name with
a record which seems to be the same
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