Catholic Parish Records - Kilkee/Kilfearagh

Susan:

I looked at a reference book that I have and also the Mormon Family History catalog www.familysearch.org  Both sources indicate that Kilfearagh RC records start in 1869.

Roger McDonnell

Roger,

Thank you for your quick response plus you have saved me a lot of time and effort with your reply so thank you again. Looks like I won't be able to trace my GGGrandfather after all.

Susan

Philip Handrehan/Handrin/Handlin was b. in 1845 or 46 in either Clare or Tipperary. Parents were Richard and Anistacia(Fogarty). different spellings were from census and catholic orphanage. Found him on ships list, Brody from Liverpool to N.Y. City July 13, 1850. Parents died and he remembered they lived in Co. Clare. He named one daughter Clara.

The Catholic parish registers of Kilkee from 1869 to about 1880 are indeed widely available on microfilm; the older records dating back to 1837 have never been microfilmed and are still held in local custody in the parish church.

Has anyone had any experience obtaining access to the Kilkee registers that date prior to 1869? Does the parish copy register entries upon request? If so, do they require a specific date for the event? I'm guessing they don't have time to actually research entries for a given surname, for example.

In his book Before the Famine Struck, pertaining to the 1834-1845 period in Kilkee and surrounds, Ignatius Murphy cited a marriage register from Kilkee Catholic Church. Does the parish still possess this register in addition to baptisms?

The Kilkee baptism and marriage registers both go back to the late 1830s and there are surname indexes to fathers and grooms respectively in the parish office. The original registers are in poor condition and it is often very hard to identify dates. In places it appears that the books may have fallen apart and the pages been rebound in random order. The parish secretary will deal with queries as time permits - which may not be so easy in these days of COVID-19 restrictions.

Who are the Kilkee people in whom you are interested?

Paddy,

Thank you for that information about the registers. The fact that there is an index at least gives some hope that I might obtain some relevant documentation for my paternal ancestry.

Bryan Kirwan, born in Kilkee in 1868, was my paternal grandfather; he was the son of Bryan Kirwan and Mary Herritt. I believe my great grandfather was probably born in the 1830s, so records for his birth may or may not exist if the registers start in the late 1830s; he died in 1900. Mary Herritt was born in Limerick, and I have found her baptismal record. She emigrated to Bridgeport, CT, USA shortly after she was widowed, but thankfully just after she was recorded in the 1901 census, permitting me to confirm that I had the right person identified! She traveled with her youngest son David, and joined several children then living in Bridgeport; Michael, Bryan, Bridget, Elizabeth, Anna, and Katherine.  It would be great to learn more about Bryan and Mary's children, especially if they had any who didn't make it to CT, and to learn about other Kirwans in Kilkee. 

For example, I believe that my GGF had a brother Thomas, who had a son Patrick who married Bridget Russell in 1890; Thomas was dead by that point. Thomas probably was also the father of Mary and Margaret Kirwan, who both married, successively, a Thomas Haugh in Bridgeport, CT. But the evidence I have of Bryan and Thomas's relationship is only circumstantial; the two families seemed to have lived next to each other in Kilkee for a long time. There was also a John Kirwan in Kilkee, possibly another brother, but again my evidence is only circumstantial: a Patrick Kirwan, his nephew, was the informant on his death certficate. The earliest record I've found is for a Bryan Kirwan in Daugh in the Tithe Applotment Book; given the familiar name, possibly he was my GGGF.

My paternal grandmother, Johanna Kelly, may have been born in Kilkee, based on some circumstantial evidence, around 1868, but I only really know that she was from somewhere in County Clare, as shown on my father's birth certificate. She had an older brother Patrick Kelly who also emigrated to Bridgeport. In 1911, he traveled back to Ireland to visit his mother, so she apparently lived at least until that date. The death certficate for my grandmother lists no specific month or day of birth, and the year shown is 1873, almost certainly several years too late. It claims her father's name was Patrick, but I'm not especially confident of that. Brother Patrick was born on Feb. 15, 1863 acc. to his death certificate, but no parents are listed.

Kathy Kerwin Fuda