I found my ancestor, Catherine Dawson's, marriage record in Quebec, Canada. She lists her parents as James Dawson and Catherine Mahin as from Donegal and they appear to be deceased in 1844. I have found Dawson's listed in Kilbarron so am hoping this may be the right parish. thank you
What denomination were they?
The records were all from Catholic churches in Canada so I'm assuming Catholic. However, I've wondered if she might have changed religions at her marriage. Not sure that happened much. In searching for surnames (Dawson and Mahin) I found both in Templemore which could be a possibility because of close location?
Leslie,
If the family were RC and from Kilbarron, then the bad news is that the parish has no records earlier than 1854. That’s not untypical for RC records in Co Donegal.
Had a look at the 1901 census for Donegal and noted that there were 35 Dawsons in the county. All but one were RC (and that person wasn’t born in Donegal) so I think it safe to assume your family probably were RC.
Here’s some general information on the parish you might find helpful:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegal/kilbarronproj.htm
There were no Dawson households listed in the tithe applotment records for Kilbarron in 1833. None in the county at all in fact.
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp