While it is marvelous to have our Kerry Catholic Church Baptisms and Marriages freely available on www.Irishgenealogy.ie, there is no facility there to tell us which records are ‘missing’ for whatever reason. We are lucky that so many records survived.
From my long years of research I can safely say that there are many reasons, all lost now to the history of time for the missing or illegible pages. We must remember that these records were hand written into books, not always at the same time of the event. In the 1800s births always took place at home and sometimes baptisms also. The priest would have taken notes and filled in his registers later. There were no safes for keeping these records in optimal condition. Ink faded, peoples names & transriptions were sometimes mixed up. I advise to always check the original entry on www.Registers.nli.ie.
| Church Parish | C.P. or Variant | Baptisms | Marriages | Missing Records |
| ABBEYDORNEY | O’Dorney | Oct 1835 | Jan 1837 | b. 1844-1851; 1859-1880 |
| ADRIGOLE | Jan 1830 | Jan 1831 | b. 1850 -1855; m. 1850 -Sept 1855 | |
| ALLIHIES | Oct 1822 | Jan 1823 | m. 1826-1831 | |
| ANNASCAUL | Ballinvoher | Apr 1829 | May 1829 | 1837-1857 & 1875-1877 |
| ARDFERT | Kilmoyley | Mar 1819 | Mar 1825 | Lot of b. & m. missing until 1859 |
| BALLYBUNION | Ballydonoghue | Nov 1831 | Feb 1837 | |
| BALLYDESMOND | Kingwilliamstown | Jan 1850 | Jan 1850 | m. Only 100 |
| BALLYFERRITER | Kilmelcheder | Jan 1807 | Jn 1807 | b.1786-1806; m.Aug1845-Feb 1846 |
| BALLYHEIGUE | Dec 1857 | Jan 1858 | ||
| BALLYLONGFORD | Aghavallen | Mar 1823 | Jun 1826 | Many pages missing 1840-1860 |
| BALLYMACELLIGOTT | O’Brennan | Oct 1868 | Nov 1868 | Earlier & some 1869 missing – fire |
| BEAUFORT | Knockane | Mar 1844 | Jan 1843 | m. 1852-1854 |
| BOHERBUE | Nohovaldaly | July1833 | Mar 1863 | b. 1860-1863 |
| BROSNA | Jan 1868 | Jan 1890 | Only 2061 B. & 156 M. | |
| CAHERCIVEEN | June 1841 | Jan 1850 | ||
| CAHERDANIEL | Kilcrohane | Feb 1831 | May 1831 | |
| CASTLEGREGORY | Killiney | Dec 1828 | Feb 1829 | |
| CASTLEISLAND | Apr 1823 | Oct 1822 | ||
| CASTLEMAINE | Keel/Kiltalla | Feb 1804 | Feb 1804 | b.1813-1815; 1817-1818 |
| CASTLETOWNBERE | Sept 1819 | July 1819 | b. 1854-1859 (some) | |
| CAUSEWAY | Killury | Dec 1782 | Feb 1809 | b.1786-1806; m.Aug1845-Feb 1846 |
| DINGLE | Feb 1825 | May 1821 | ||
| DROMOD | Waterville | Feb 1850 | Jan 1850 | m. Mar 1867-Jan 1868 |
| DROMTARIFFE | Feb 1832 | Jan 1832 | ||
| DUAGH | Jan 1819 | Jan 1832 | ||
| EYERIES | Apr 1843 | Feb 1824 | ||
| FIRIES | Aglish/Molahiff | Jan 1830 | Jan 1830 | 1830 -1872 in very bad condition |
| FOSSA | Jan 1857 | Jan 1857 | Only 50 baptisms & 19 marriages | |
| GLENBEIGH/GLENCAR | Mar 1827 | Mar 1830 | b. 1837-1841, m. 1835 | |
| GLENFLESK | Killaha | Sept 1821 | Feb 1831 | |
| GLENGARRIFF | Bonane | July 1846 | July 1847 | |
| KENMARE | Templenoe | Jan 1819 | Jan 1819 | b. 1824-1826; m. 1838-1839 |
| KILCUMMIN | Jan 1821 | Jan 1823 | b. Aug 1859-Nov 1859; m.1859-1873 | |
| KILGARVAN | Apr 1818 | Nov 1818 | m. Apr 1864 – Oct 1864 | |
| KILLARNEY | Aug 1792 | Aug 1792 | b. 1785-1791; m. May 1851- Jan 1858 | |
| KILLEENTIERNA | Currans | June 1801 | June 1803 | b. 1809-1823; m. Feb 1828-June 1830 |
| KILLORGLIN | Oct 1798 | Oct 1798 | Major gap 1850-1880; July 1861-1881 | |
| KNOCKNAGOSHEL | Dec 1866 | Dec 1866 | ||
| LISTOWEL | Feb 1802 | Jan 1837 | b, 1834-1837, 1841-1856; m.1838-1856 | |
| LIXNAW | Dysert | Aug 1810 | Jan 1810 | 1845-1846,1848, 1852-1856 |
| MILLSTREET | Cullen | Dec 1853 | Jan 1855 | |
| MILLTOWN | Kilcolman | Oct 1825 | Oct 1821 | b.1840-1841; 1832-1842;1860/61 |
| MOYVANE | Newtownsandes | July 1855 | Oct 1855 | m.1861-1887?? |
| PRIOR | Ballinskelligs | Jan 1850 | Jan 1850 | |
| RATHMORE | Sept 1837 | Jan 1839 | b. 1841-1844; | |
| SNEEM | Ballybog | Jan 1833 | Feb 1858 | b. Nov 1848-Nov 1857 |
| SPA | Ballynahaglish | Nov 1866 | Jan 1867 | |
| TARBERT | Kilnaughtin | Oct 1859 | July 1859 | |
| TRALEE | Jan 1772 | Feb 1774 | b. some gaps 1805 | |
| TUOSIST | Apr 1844 | Jan 1850 | m.32 only ; ‘some pages missing’ | |
| VALENTIA | Mar 1825 | Feb 1827 | b. Aug 1864-1867; m. 1856-1880 |
Thanks so much for this information
Helen, thank you for replying.
Many thanks Kay for this update and summary.
Your contributions are always a source of help, guidance and support.
I am a member of a number of genealogy sites and share/collorborate with many on my Kerry (Iveragh) ancestry.
However, I am not a member of rootsireland and I just wonder would it be worthwhile?
I do apprecite that you cannot promote one site over another but the question I have is – does rootsireland have more / better records
than other sites?
Best wishes,
Tim
Tim, I don’t think RootsIreland hass any better records and Kerry has a lot less of everything on it. I tend to buy €30 monthly subscriptions when I really need them. For instance when I have clients that are on the borders of Kerry/Limerick or Kerry/Cork. It is a bit easier to use than http://www.IrishGenealogy.ie but thats about it. Kay
Thank you for this tip, I’m searching for family around Waterville area
Hello Kay. Unfortunately my family are from Killorglin parish, which as you know has huge gaps in its records. The government website has all manner of spellings for the addresses and surnames of the individuals. I was wondering if you know of any databases or maps of Kerry which show the original place names as that might prove helpful.
Best wishes Paul
Yes Killorglin is a killer. They must have had some un-cooperative priests as well as they refused to give their records to the National Library when the records were first transcribed. I think one of the best places to go and find anything is the townland database https://www.townlands.ie/ If you go down through an area and see a townland name in both Irish and English you will often find that the Irish one is what the area is really known by. I don’t know where you live but if you repeat an Irish name out loud, it sometimes rings a bell as to the exact place.
Paul, John Grenham has a good map of Killorglin and its surrounds. See https://www.johngrenham.com/c_parish/c_parish_main.php?civilparishid=1149&civilparish=Killorglin&county=Kerry
Kay
Thanks Kay
This is very helpful, despite the disappointment that records are missing. I am curious why no death / burial records seem to be available for these periods. I am particularly interested in Castlemaine/Keel. I’m sure you will know.
Dave, I think there are only deaths available for one parish – Duagh and that is for a couple of years. In my experience we can only get the deaths on the Civil registrations IrishGenealogy.ie from 1864 and the first ten or fifteen years have not been transcribed on that site yet.
Killarney Baptisms 1785-1791 also seem to be missing, both from IrishGenealogy.ie and the NLI web site. Transcriptions appear in the OCM Volume 5, pages 205-213, but I haven’t found the images.
Hi Kay
Do you have any tips for looking at Kinneigh records please – O’Sullivan/Sullivan cc 1850 -1900
When you are looking for a name that is either ‘missing’ and it is a date probably before the first record (baptism or marriage), I would go to land records – https://www.townlands.ie/kerry/. In the case of Kineigh, it is situated on the borders of the Civil Parishes of Prior and Dromod and while I would call it a townland, it is not listed as such. Then you also have the problem with the surname ‘Sullivan/O’Sullivan’. It is by far the most difficult surname to research as there are so many and it often has a ‘branch’ name by which it is actually recorded. I would try the An Dromad townland called Ceann Eich on the website and look at Griffiths Valuation if the date you are looking for is around 1850 or also here you could get the 1901 and 1911 Census figures.
Hi Kay, I wanted to let you know that Roman Catholic baptisms for Dingle from April 1828 to April 1837 are missing. They ARE available at the NLI. I reported this to irishgenealogy.ie in the summer of 2020 but never received a response. I also corresponded with John Grenham about it by email in October 2020 and he verified they aren’t there. On NLI site it appears there are an additional 200 pages on that microfilm reel that are not on irishgenealogy.ie.
There is the baptism of NR Sexton of Dingle on 30 March 1828 and the baptism of Matthew Ash of John St on 1 September 1837. There is only one baptism between those 2, Bridget Folley of Goat Street on 11 April 1833.
That’s where my Griffins are hiding!
Kathy, thank you for this update. Yes I know about the ‘missing’ records from Dingle. They are mostly illegible and so were never transcribed originally. I was in the presbytery in Dingle many years ago and saw these records when I was researching The Kerry Girls: Emigration & the Earl Grey Scheme. Most of the Dingle girls were born in those years 1828- 1837. I reported it to he priest (Fr. Tom Looney ) at the time and the following year he got a visiting friend to transcribe all these. That was completed, Fr Tom was transferred to Fossa and the new list was not added to IrishGenealogy.ie It was just too long winded to add this to my list! I could try and find out about the Griffin baptism if you give me name and approx date.
Kay, thank you so much for getting back to me. I am looking for the children of Pat Griffin and Catherine Moynihan/Minihan, who were married in 1833. Their son Tom is my great great grandfather. I did find his sister Margaret who was born in 1840, but I am sure there are more children. I had a DNA match who turned out to me an uncle of a old friend, and his great grandparents were Mary Griffin and Jeremiah Driscoll. And once I checked baptismal sponsors I could see that Jeremiah Driscoll was godfather to Tom’s oldest and Tom was godfather to Jeremiah and Mary’s oldest. I will round them all up eventually! I estimate Tom as 1833 and Mary as 1835 so there may be one more between Mary and Margaret.
thanks for all the great work you do!
Kathy, it is very frustrating when you can’t find someone.
Hi Kay,
Greg Burns here at the New Jersey Shore, USA. Thank you for the info and for all the good work you you’ve done and continue to do. I have finally found some good info re my Sheehan family finally placing them in the area of Cullinagh/Killinagh, Knockane likely the townland of Carhoonahone. Many holes in the records and none c. 1820 when my Denis Sheehan was born. Have checked the Joe Maher site and there are scads of O’Connor and O’Shea names in the area. My DNA shows MANY matches to them. Have felt that Denis’ mother, Ellen, was an O’Connor.or an O’Shea. Anyway, just wanted to share and offer my gratitude. All the Best. Greg
Greg, thank you for the comments. Much appreciated. It is so frustrating when records are ‘missing’. When you get up against the proverbial wall its hard to take.I think if you concentrate on the land detials that Denis Sheehan’s ancestors occupied it kind of satisfies you -‘kind of’ being the operative word.
Kay
If anyone is looking for RC records for Ballyvourney, they are available in OCM (Casey Collection) in vol. 11, pages 1316-1389 covering 1810-1868. This is available at NLI and, I believe Tralee.
Marge in SoCal
Marge, thank you for this information. Yes it is available at the Local History section of the Co. Library in Tralee. Kay