Murphy's of Kilbeg

Hi Colm,

Thank you for your message.

Have you tried looking at church records in Kilbeg parish for some information on Michael? As civil registration did not begin until 1864, all births, deaths and marriages were recorded by the local parish church.

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 Kilbeg parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Meath&parish=Kilbeg&churchid=942

As you can see from the above link the Meath Heritage and Genealogy Centre have copies available. If you would like to contact them, here is their email, however please note that a fee may apply. meathhc@iol.ie

Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42

Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.

I did a search for Murphy?s in Kilbegnet parish in Griffith?s Valuation. This is a property valuation survey that was carried out in Ireland 1848-1864. There was one result for a James in Carlanstown parish 1854, I wonder if this is Michael?s father?

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&Submit.x=48&Submit.y=11&Submit=Submit&familyname=murphy&firstname=&baronyname=&countyname=MEATH&unionname=&parishname=KILBEG

Have you tried looking for Michael or his family in the 1901/1911 census records? http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

You could try looking in local newspaper archives also to see if you can find his obituary. The Meath chronicle is available online at http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/meath-chronicle.php You can search the archive for free however you do have to subscribe for a small fee to view specific articles. You could also try contacting the Meath Library Local Studies department to see what they have available: http://www.meath.ie/Community/Libraries/LocalStudies/

Some other websites that you may find useful 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

Familysearch: www.familysearch.org

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/meath/index.html

Ireland Gen Projects: http://www.igp-web.com/Meath/index.htm

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