Green / Rafter Family

Hi,

Thank you very much for your message. I hope that someone with information on the family and possible relatives makes a connection with you.

In the meantime, it would be very helpful if you could narrow down a parish of origin. Have you tried searching online for records? Here are a couple of places where you can do this. However these websites do not have complete records. Even if you could find one though it would give you a parishe name:

www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.

www.rootsireland.ie have a large collection of Irish Church records, however you have to pay to use this site.

You could also try using the land records pertaining to Ireland. These do not contain any genealogical information byt can sometimes be used to tie a person to a specific place. There is one record of a James Green in the Tithe Applotment Books dated 1833 in Jerpoint West:

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?surname=Green&firstname=James&county=Kilkenny&parish=&townland=&search=Search

He is also recorded in the later Griffith?s Valuation in 1850 in Jerpoint Abbey:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&Submit.x=-1212&Submit.y=-562&Submit=Submit&familyname=green&firstname=james&baronyname=&countyname=KILKENNY&unionname=&parishname=

I wonder is it possible that this is your James? Jerpoint West and Jerpoint Abbey belong to the Catholic parish of thomastown so you could try looking into church records there to see if you can find any records pertaining to the family. Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Thomastown parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Kilkenny&parish=Thomastown&churchid=1032

Some other websites that you may find helpful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/kilkenny/index.html

Irish Gen Projects: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik2/

Kilkenny Library: http://kilkennylibrary.kilkenny.ie/eng/Our_Services/Local_Studies/

Remember to post any new information that you find here. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support