Re: Parishes

Dennis Ahern wrote:
Ian Goddard <goddai01@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: Brian wrote:
:> When I find a reference to a certain parish, is this the church or a
:> political unit as in Louisiana?
<deleted>

: You don't say what sort of record said "Parish/District". Possibly the : context would be one which could be served by either unit.

: A parish would be the area served by the church.

No. In Ireland it refers to what is called the civil parish, which is a "political" or governmental bondary. A Civil Parish is made up of Townlands and/or towns. A collection of Civil Parishes make up a Poor Law Union. Parishes are part of a Barony, which is part of a county, which may be divided up into more than one Riding (East Riding, West Riding, etc.). There are also Civil Registration Districts and Electoral Divisions, all of which overlap. A person could be born in County Cork in a parish that is in a civil registration district in neighboring County Limerick. So, the baptism would be in a religious parish record in Cork, but the civil registration of birth (if after 1864) would be in a registrar's district in Limerick. All of these boundaries overlap in a very confusing way. I recommend Brian Mitchell's book "A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland" with maps to sort everything out.

See http://www.seanruad.com/ for the IreAtlas database of Irish townlands.

See http://tiara.ie/maps.php for information on maps of Ireland.

While parish might mean a CP it could also mean a religious parish. For instance your second link has a further link "Towns, Cities, and Parishes of Ireland" http://webspace.webring.com/people/se/emerald_ancestry/towns.htm and on a quick sampling these just seem to be taking the user to lists of religious parishes with the additional complication that in come counties there's a choice of RC & CoI parishes.

District is also ambiguous. As an example, my wife's gfather's birth was registered in Lurgan Reg. District but 10 years later the census has him in the DED of Portadown Urban. The Reg District is larger & contains the DED.

Context is everything. Although you may well be right in that "Parish/District" means the CP we're not really given sufficient information in the OP to say what "Parish" means on its own.

--
Ian

The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang
at austonley org uk
.

Relevant Pages

  • Jewish named towns (5)
    ... Known also as Zydowo or Sydowo, Kalisz district, parish Chelmce ... Village and homestead, Miechow district, parish Wawrzynczyce ... Zydowa Buda [Zhee doh vah Boo dah] ...
    (soc.genealogy.jewish)
  • Jewish named towns (6)
    ... Village, Mariampol district, Gudele parish, ... identified as family nest of noble family Zydowski, ...
    (soc.genealogy.jewish)
  • Re: Entering place names, deja-vu all over again
    ... What do you mean by "parish, district" ... There is no need to have copies of the relevant pages in the church books. ... Aunt Ett shared data on her Swedish line with me, ...
    (soc.genealogy.computing)
  • Re: Parishes
    ... A parish would be the area served by the church. ... In Ireland it refers to what is called the civil parish, ... is in a civil registration district in neighboring County Limerick. ...
    (soc.genealogy.ireland)
  • Re: Parishes
    ... A parish would be the area served by the church. ... In Ireland it refers to what is called the civil parish, which is a "political" or governmental bondary. ... So, the baptism would be in a religious parish record in Cork, but the civil registration of birth would be in a registrar's district in Limerick. ...
    (soc.genealogy.ireland)