If you are visiting this website in search of your ancestors, we hope that the following information may prove useful and help you to discover more about them.
Our oldest parish records are no longer held in our parish churches, but in the Church of Ireland’s Representative Church Body Library in Dublin.
The Library does not provide a genealogical research service. What this means is that you need to have the specific details of your ancestors (Parish, date of birth, marriage or death) before the library staff can locate the records for you. Specific details can be checked for a fee but general genealogical research is not undertaken by the Library staff. If you have already discovered the relevant details, you may request a search by visiting their online store.
If you have been unable to find details about your ancestors you may wish to employ the services of a professional researcher. You can find a list of professional researchers at accreditedgenealogists.ie.
Unfortunately, due to a fire in the Public Records office in the Four Courts in Dublin on 30th June 1922, Irish census returns, original wills dating back to the 16th century and more than 1000 Church of Ireland parish registers containing Baptism, Marriage and Burial records were lost. The good news is that many clergy had simply not sent their registers to Dublin for archival storage as the registers were still in use, so many parish records remain, as do the census returns of 1901 and 1911. If you have ancestors who were Roman Catholic, Presbyterian or Methodist, the news is even better as the Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from these denominations were not housed in the Public Records office.
The Representative Church Body Library currently holds the records form our parish for the following period: The Parish of Mountmellick 1803-2010; The Parish of Clonaslee 1814-1990; The Parish of Coolbanagher 1802-2010; and, The Parish of Rosenallis 1792-2010.
It should be noted that some members of the Church of Ireland from these parishes were buried in graveyards outside this parish (the records for the Church of Ireland Parishes connected with Portarlington may prove fruitful) or in a graveyard not under the care of the Church of Ireland, such as the Quaker Sleeping Ground at Rosenallis. The Irish Society of Friends may be able to provide details for this burial ground.
Surveys and plans of our three burial grounds can be found here.
The following is a complete List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers:
