Finding the Catholic Parish
The Roman Catholic Church divided Ireland into Catholic parishes that did not usually align with Ireland's civil parishes. Searching by civil parish will not locate the Catholic record. In order to find a record or narrow results, search by the Catholic parish.
If civil parish or townland is KNOWN:
- Catholic Parishes and Civil Parish Links - search the civil parish to find which Catholic parish it is in.
- If only townland known, enter it into The IreAtlas Townland DataBase to find which civil parish it is in. Then search for the civil parish above.
- Compare Catholic Parish Maps and Civil Parish Maps.
If civil parish and townland are NOT KNOWN:
- Go to Finding the Ireland County or Parish of Origin to learn how to find the civil parish or townland.
If only county is KNOWN:
- Learn all of the Catholic parishes in the county to help narrow down results. See Catholic Parish Maps.
Take note: many Catholic parishes have multiple names. Go to National Library of Ireland and enter the name of the parish or click on the parish on the map to learn its variant names.