RC Baptism Records for Drumcliff (Ennis) Parish, 1841-1879

Transcriber Notes:

The writing in the register is very faded in places and it is important to check the original. The list of converts on pages 276, 277 and 278 have been omitted.

The Drumcliff Catholic parish register does not show records for many of the townlands in Drumcliff civil parish. The Catholic parish seems to have been confined to Clonroad Beg and Clonroad More and some other townlands close by, e.g. Cahercalla, Claureen, Drumcaran, Fountain, Lifford, Loughvella, Shanvogh, Drumcliff. The townlands in the west of the civil parish must have belonged to another Catholic parish. A parish called Inch is mentioned a couple of times. Some townlands may have belonged to Kilmaley Catholic parish. Or was Inch a subsection of Kilmaley parish?

In transcribing first names, transcriber very often failed to distinguish between Mary and Margaret. This is because the priest often abbreviated Margaret to Marg. Just a couple of other points on first names: Susan, Judith and Johanna are variations of the same name. And Edmund, Edward and Ned are the same name.

Almost every surname has several variations. Surnames beginning with the letter C can also begin with the letter K (e.g. Carney – Kearney). And surnames can have the prefix O, or be without it (e.g. O’Halloran – Halloran). This is not so common with the prefix Mc, but McCarthy is very often given as Carthy. Sometimes the prefix Mc is written as Ma (e. g. McGuire – Maguire; McGrath - Magrath). The number of variations becomes clear when an entry is checked both by father’s surname and by mother’s surname (e.g. it becomes clear that Finn can be spelled Fynn). Some variations are fairly obvious, e.g., Bourke – Burke, but others are less obvious. The name now usually spelled McInerney has several variations, including McNerheny and McEnerny.
Here are just few examples of variations: Hayes, Hease, Hase; McHugh, McKew, McCue; Lewin, Lune
Neylon, Neylan, Nealon, Nailen; Powell, Pol; Tymons, Timmons; Mullins, Mullen, Mullon; Noonan, Nunen; Real, Reel, Rail, Riels, Ryals; McKey, MacKee, MacKay; Hehir, Haire, Hare; Pinn, Pine, Pyne

Transcriber believes there is only one example of a surname being thoroughly anglicized: Cunneen is given as “Rabbit” on one occasion (see baptisms of children of Charles Doherty in baptisms by father’s surname). It seems most of the anglicisation of names had already happened by the end of 18th century, or early 19th century.

Regarding placenames, unfortunately the residence was not recorded until 1849, so there are over 2,000 entries without a placename.

Registers by Date (all .xlsx format)
1841-1879
Registers by Father's Surname (all .xlsx format)
1841-1879
Registers by Mother's Surname (all .xlsx format)
1841-1879
Registers by Residence (all .xlsx format)
1841-1879