O'Brien of Longford

Hi Nancy,

Thank you very much for your message.

There are some Catholic records that date to the 18th century, however these often tend to be from more urban or built up areas. Really, the reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 in rural areas, is that they simply may not exist. Unfortunately, this is the case for Clongesh parish. You can use the Irish Times website to see what records are available in specific parishes. If you follow this link you can see that for Clonglesh parish records do not begin until 1829:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Longford&parish=Clongish&churchid=155

However, in the19th century new Catholic parishes were created so starting dates can sometimes be misleading. Many parishes changed their geographical spread so you may find earlier records relating to your family in the records of adjoining parishes. Here is a link to a map of the Catholic parishes in Longford:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/longfordrc.htm

Templemichael may be your best bet as records there start in 1802.

Most Catholic records are still held locally so you may want to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. The Irish Times website also shows you where copies of the records are available.

It may be an idea to contact Longford Genealogy to see if they have any copies, however a fee may apply. Here is their email address:longroot@iol.ie

I hope this is helpful. Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support