Kimberly,
Prior to the arrival of the bicycle in Ireland (1870s for rural areas) most people travelled by foot. Therefore if you were courting someone, it mostly tended to be within walking distance of where you lived. Walking distance then might have been 5 to 10 miles, but for most people, courting someone 30 miles away wasn?t a great idea. You would hardly ever meet. So the majority married someone fairly close by. I have heard people say that you married ?within an asses bark? of where you lived, or that you married ?across the sheugh? (across the ditch) ie the next farm. So certainly look for spouses families nearby, in adjacent townlands. Anywhere up to 10 miles away perhaps. Bear in mind some of the townlands are quite small. Kilmacrennan townland (which includes the village itself) is 233 acres. So a 5 minute walk in any direction has you in another townland. (Townlands are not the same as US townships. The whole country is divided into adjacent townlands, regardless of whether anyone lives there or not. Whereas with townships, you might obviously travel miles to the next one). So looking in a different townland just means looking 500 yards away in many cases.
Griffiths wasn?t a census. It didn?t list everyone. It listed heads of household and just those with land worth taxing (?5 rental or more). So people with small turf cabins, servants, people in many towns and so on, weren?t listed at all. So absence from Griffiths doesn?t mean someone didn?t live there. (We use Griffiths because it;s all we have got. The actual censuses were destroyed so this was felt to be the best alternative, but there's no way it is as comprehensive as a real census).
Regarding early church records, here?s a link to a site which tells you what RC records exist for each parish, and where copies are held. It says there?s nothing prior to 1862 for Kilmacrennan. I cross checked with the PRONI (public record office) site in Belfast. They hold copies too. Theirs also start in 1862. So I am pretty sure those are the earliest. You could always e-mail or write to the pp to check, but I?d be very surprised if there are any earlier ones, as those are what people most want, and so it would be surprising if they had been overlooked when the lists were compiled. There probably were earlier records at one time but they have been lost due to fire, water damage, negligence etc. (Co Donegal is particularly poor for early records. There?s hardly a parish in the county with records before the 1860s. I don?t know why that is).
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/donegalrc.htm
Elwyn
