Parish Records for Broadford earlier than 1844?

Jackie,

According to this link there are no RC records in existence for Broadford earlier than 1844:

https://www.johngrenham.com/records/church.php?civilparishid=2769&civil…

Thank you Elwyn,

Would you know if this is because the church didn't exist until that time?  Or possibly just lost?

Just wondering if there were alternate RC Churches in the surrounding areas to which residents may have gone instead or was it more common for a family to stay with one particular church? 

Is there a listing of the churches?  I would think Diocese would include many churches, but I may be mistaken in that line of thinking.  In the US, there can be many RC parishes all part of one particular regional diocese.  

Many thanks for your assistance.

Regards,

Jackie

In the RC church you would normally attend the church in the parish you resided. There might be more than 1 church within that parish but if so, any records ought to be listed along with the main church’s.

I don’t know whether there ever were any earlier records for Broadford. There might have been, but possibly not. The adjacent parish of Killaloe has records from 1828, O’Callaghan’s Mill has them from 1835, Kilnoe from 1832, Doonass has none prior to 1851. So the general picture for Co. Clare is of records being compiled from the 1820s onwards.

Legislation known as the Penal Laws was passed in the Irish Parliament between 1695 and 1728 by an overwhelmingly Anglican landed gentry anxious to preserve their privileged position by keeping Catholics – felt to be disloyal and untrustworthy on the basis of events in the seventeenth century – in subjection.  Laws were specifically passed to hinder the operations of the Roman Catholic Church. In some parts of Ireland this legislation made it difficult for the church to operate openly which had an obvious impact in terms of things like record keeping.  Having said that in some in large parts of the country priests and bishops were able to operate with impunity, while a not insignificant number of mass-houses were built with the approbation of local landowners. So there are RC baptism and marriage records in some parts of the country for the 1700s but not in others. Even after the penal laws were long repealed some parishes took a long time to get their record keeping on a proper footing and you will find that a lack of records prior to the 1820s is pretty common.

I am not local to the area and don’t know if there are any other chapels in Broadford. You would probably be best to contact the parish for its history. However I am fairly confident that even if there were, they don’t have any earlier records.

Hello Elwyn,

Wow! what great information.  Thank you for taking the time to reply.   

I did see in the online Broadford parish register, there was a note in the beginning of the book dated March 1891 and it read

"The parish commonly known as Broadford has three churches, namely St. Peters at Broadford, St. Marys at Kilbouet (sp?) 

St. Josephs at Kilmore"

So at least that was the case as of 1891.   But, as you indicated, it's highly unlikely earlier records exist for the reasons stated.  At least I won't be hunting for something that isn't there ; )

Again, many thanks!!

Kind Regards,

Jackie