87 Missing Baptismal Registers from NLI Collection

Casey-Hunter:

I'm not aware of a list of parishes not microfilmed by NLI. Presumably they were parishes where records started after 1880 which was the cutoff that NLI used. Here are examples of two parishes in Co. Galway  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/1084    https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0415 where NLI did not microfilm because records started after 1880.

What sites have you been searching for Co. Cork church records? The two main sites are the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie which covers the parishes in the Diocese of Cork and Ross and a subscription site like Roots Ireland which would have records for the parishes in the Diocese of Cloyne. I did find a baptismal record November 11 1813 in Clondrohid RC parish with father Patrick Casey and mother Margaret Casey.

Can you provide more info on the person you are searching?

Roger McDonnell

If you go to the RC parishes for Cork on the John Grenham site, it lists all the records that exist, and where they can be found. There’s probably 60 odd parishes in Cork, but with a little patience you can see from that any that were not filmed.

https://www.johngrenham.com/places/rcmap_index.php#maps/

Hello Roger and Elwyn

Thanks for your reply. I will look at the resources in your message, thanks. I searched in person in Dublin at the NLI when we were last in Ireland, without success. Since then, I've mainly searched the NLI Parish Records on line, but because 'my' Margaret Casey (born c. 1820) couldn't be found, I'd thought that perhaps the parish records for her had been lost. My two last posts are below.

I'm not sure if you know whether some parish records are still in the possession of the local parish priest in some churches (i.e. before the dates covered by the NLI) but haven't been made available for copying/scanning? I'm aware of the 'Congregatio Pro Clericis prohibition on filming RC Records' and so I wondered if some parish records, including my Margaret, were still in existence but not made public?

Since my last post (on 14 March 2020), I accidentally stumbled on some newspaper coverage of the trial - not in Co. Cork where I'd been looking - but in Co. Limerick. This was very significant as it names the 'prosecutor' or party from whom the butter was stolen, viz. "Thomas Casey, near Charleville".  This is the first time (apart from the trial itself having been conducted at Kanturk) that I've been able to pin down any location in Co. Cork where Margaret may have been living or working.  She was a dairy maid, convicted for stealing a firkin of butter.  Her mother and siblings may have been living elsewhere in Co. Cork, of course.

I'd like to at least find out some more about the Thomas Casey, near Charleville.  He may have been an uncle, given Margaret's father is not mentioned at her trial in June 1847 - only her mother, brother and sisters.

I appreciate your help.

regards, Doug

Casey family of Co. Cork - Margaret, John, Mary and Ellen

Back in 2015, I enquired about whether anyone could help find any of the Casey family of Co. Cork.  (My old post is appended below.)  Now I have a new query to help find where the family lived.

Can anyone tell me the names of which newspapers might have covered Margaret's trial in June 1847 in Kanturk, pls?

Any news coverage could help with details of where the family lived or might provide some other clue.

My wife and I would travel back to Co. Cork in a flash - if we could just find the birthplace for 'our' Casey family.

Many thanks

Doug (the Casey Hunter)

Casey, Margaret Co. Cork born c.1820

What parish did Margaret Casey come from?

Margaret's mother was also named Margaret Casey and in 1847 she had sisters Mary Casey and Ellen Casey and a brother John Casey.  Margaret, a Roman Catholic, was 27 at the time of her trial in Kanturk, Co. Cork on 21 June 1847.  She was tried for stealing a firkin of butter (she was a dairy maid) and sentenced to seven years transportation to Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania, Australia).  There's more to tell about her life in Australia, but first we'd like to find out which parish she was born in.

Is anyone living descended from John Casey, Mary Casey or Ellen Casey?  Which were the likely dairying districts around Kanturk where home might have been for the family?

Many thanks, Doug

You ask if parishes might have earlier records that are not in the nli collection.  I think the short answer is that most don’t. They were asked to make all their early records available for filming and most did. But there were exceptions. I don’t know Co Cork well enough to immediately report any there but here’s an example from Cushendun, Co Antrim where an extra 14 years records appear to have been found, which are not in the nli collection. But they are on the UHF and rootsireland sites. Presumably they were found after the original filming was complete.

https://www.johngrenham.com/records/rc_church.php?county=Antrim&parish=Cushendun&churchid=409

And Kilmore parish in Co Down has never had any of its records filmed ever. I do not know the reason but presumably it wasn’t possible to get access in the 1980s. However the records are now on rootsireland etc.

https://www.johngrenham.com/records/rc_church.php?county=Down&parish=Kilmore&churchid=453

Interestingly John Grenham has found out about these records, and has mentioned them on his site, so that gives some confidence that if there are similar records in Co. Cork, it’ll say so on the relevant parish page.

I’ll leave it to one of our Cork Volunteers to try and help you with research in and around Charleville.