Church Records of St Mac Nissi in Larne

Hello Bill,

Civil Registration of births, marriages, and deaths in Ireland for all religious denominations did not begin until 1864, with the exception that Protestant marriages, as well as civil marriages were recorded by the Irish government beginning in April of 1845. What this means is that you’ll have to search for your McCormick ancestors’ marriages and baptisms in church records.

St. Mac Nissi’s is a Catholic Church in Larne. The current church structure was built in 1859, according to the church parish website link at: https://www.larneparish.co.uk/our-churches

This church had replaced an older church structure built in 1831. For a beautiful photo of present day St. Mac Nissi’s Catholic Church, go to the larnparish.co.uk link at: https://is.gd/sGEUoQ

According to the National Library of Ireland, there were alternative names for the St. Mac Nissi Catholic Parish. These include Carrickfergus and Larne; Larne; Ballygowan; as well as St. Macnissi Larne. Go to the following National Library of Ireland site for confirmation and to view a map of the parish. The map gives the name of the parish as “Carrickfergus”: https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/1142

Now, view the Google Map which follows. The map shows that the distance between Larne in the north and Carrickfergus in the south is 11.4 miles by the shortest route. If you compare the Google Map with the parish map from the National Library of Ireland, you’ll see they cover approximately the same area of County Antrim: https://is.gd/dsOCOO

This means the Catholic parish registers for St. Mac Nissi’s, Larne, in some websites, will fall under the auspices of the Catholic Parish of Carrickfergus. One of these websites is the Ask About Ireland website, which is mainly a subscription-based or Pay-As-You-Go website, but does not charge to search Catholic baptisms, marriages, and available church burial indexes and transcriptions for all of Ireland for much of the 19th century.

The search engine for the FMP baptism transcriptions can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/jnmqmuv

The search engine for Catholic marriages can be accessed at: http://tinyurl.com/jzylkjy

For Catholic Parish burial transcriptions go to the search engine at: http://tinyurl.com/j9qe5p9

However, not all Catholic Church Parishes in Ireland kept burial records.

Attached to the FMP baptism, marriage, and burial transcriptions are links that will take you to copies of the original parish registers held by the National Library of Ireland in Dublin.

You’ll have to register with Ask About Ireland to access the Catholic parish registers for the 32 counties of Ireland. Registration is free.

Baptism registers for the Carrickfergus/St. Mac Nissi/Larne parish commence in 1821 and go to 1872, though there are some gaps in the registers. Marriages also cover the years 1821 to 1872, but there are gaps in these registers too. You’ll be able to see the coverage of the registers at the National Library of Ireland site you accessed earlier.

An index of the McCormick Carrickfergus Catholic baptisms prior to 1850, can be viewed at the following Find My Past link: https://is.gd/js1wAo

There are also two "McCormack" baptisms registered in the Carrickfergus Catholic Parish prior to 1850 at the Find My Past website: https://is.gd/0aRXIb

The Find My Past website also shows there were at least 5 McCormick marriages recorded in the Carrickfergus Catholic Parish before 1850: https://is.gd/VSRVFJ

There is also one “O’neill or McCormack” marriage recorded in the Carrickfergus Parish before 1850: https://is.gd/WNz7DK

An Ordnance Survey Map from the 1837 to 1842 time period shows the location of Larne and the R.C. Chapel to the northeast of the town. The map, which comes from the GeoHive website, can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/2RNEGPg

Once at the map, click on “Close Menu,” to view the full image of Larne. This R.C. Chapel is where your McCormick ancestors may have been married, or where their children were baptized.

Good luck Bill in finding your McCormick ancestors in the Carrickfergus/St. Mac Nissi/Larne Catholic registers.

Kind Regards,

Dave Boylan

Good Morning Dave,

A happy Sunday morning to you.

Very many thanks for the information you have made available and I am looking forward to following up the leads. 

I suppose I am intrigued by the fact that my 3*GF was described as a Harbour Master and Larne sounds possible as his base.

Have a good day and again many thanks.

Bill Smyth