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Mystery townland in County Carlow- likely St Mullins/Borris Parish

CarlowBallyellin (Carlow)St Mullins (Carlow)

Hello from the States--RC Parish records for St. Mullins, and occasionally Borris, in the late 1790s-1820s show a townland that has surnames I'm tracing but I cannot find it via townlands.ie or logainm.ie. It looks like "Crane", "Cranes", "Grane", or in one record "Craane." (one transcription attached). I know there is a "Craan Lower"  and a "Crane" in Wexford, and Craan and Craans farther north in County Carlow, but can't find anything like that townland name in the vicinity of St Mullins or Borris Parish, Co. Carlow. Ideas? Maybe an old name that changed?

Many thanks, Betsy xo

PS My surnames are Lalor and Lannan, also Kelly and maybe Murphy,and Grinnin/Cannon/Cummins. By the early-mid-1800s they were in Ballybrack/Ballymurphy, but I'm digging back farther and making headway!

newelizabeth_i…

5 replies

Craan townland is in the civil parish of Barragh in Co. Carlow.

The infant living in Craan was baptized in the Catholic parish of Borris.

The civil parish and the Catholic parish are not the same.  

It is possible the Catholic parish of Borris is in the civil parish of Barragh or vice-versa.

You'd have to do a bit more investigating--google the maps--but I would not discount Craan townland in Barragh parish as your ancestor's birthplace.

Good luck.

 

glanvil3@aol.com

Betsy:

The names of townlands were not standardized until 1851. Many place names were absorbed by a different townland. I found a possible townland in Kiltennell civil parish. The townland is Crannagh. The RC parish for Kiltennell civil parish is Borris RC parish.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you, Patricia and Roger, for these speedy and helpful responses! Understanding the civil vs RC parish lines is so important to my research in Carlow and beyond. How does one overlay the civil and RC parishes?

You are both amazing! Again, a million thanks,

Betsy

newelizabeth_i…

Betsy:

There are two sites that are very helpful: johngrenham.com and logainm.ie     The best resource is a book by Brian Mitchell called "A Guide to Irish Parish Registers". This book shows for each civil parish the corresponding RC parish in the 19th century. Brian also has another book called " A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland " which has maps showing the civil parishes for a county and then a separate map showing the RC parishes within a county.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Following up: Crannagh it is! Your reminder about the civil parish boundaries was very helpful- I had not even considered Kiltennell Civil Parish before, but now see it adjoins Ballyellin, the main one I've been working with. I previously wasn't aware that Ballyellin is geographically split into two separate parts!

The historical record shows that in 1839 Crannagh was called Craan (which is also the neighboring Wexford townland over the mountains). The map on Geonames.org was extremely helpful too, showing me how close Crannagh townland is to Ballybrack/Ballymurphy, the known center of my ancestors.

 

Again, thank you, Roger and Patricia! xo

 

newelizabeth_i…

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