Paulstown Murphy ancestory

Hi,

Thank you for your message.

Shankill and Kilmacahill civil parishes are beside each other so I suspect that Paulstown straddles both of them. However both parishes belong to the Roman Catholic parish of Paulstown! I know that this sounds very confusing, and Irish land divisions can be hard to comprehend sometimes, here is a link that helps explain them though:

http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/index.html

Also here is a map showing Kilkenny?s civil parishes:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/civilparish/index.cfm?fuseaction=GetMap&CityCounty=Kilkenny

and Catholic parishes: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/kilkennyrc.htm

You could try using Griffith?s Valuation to try and narrow down the townland that they lived in. This is a property valuation survey that was carried out in Ireland 1848-1864. It doesn?t offer any genealogical information but can sometimes be used to tie a person to a specific place. you can search it here:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

You could also try the earlier land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838)

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

Have you tried looking in church records for information? Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Paulstown parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Kilkenny&parish=Paulstown&churchid=722

As you can see from the above link the family history centre in Kilkenny, Rothe House and Garden have copies available. Here is their email if you would like to contact them, however a fee may apply: kilkennyfamilyhistory@rothehouse.com

Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42

Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.

Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 so any births, deaths or marriages in the family after this date would be recorded in these records. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

Have you tried looking in the 1901/1911 census records to see if there were any family still in the area at the time? You can so so here: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Irish Newspaper Archives: http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/

Family Search: www.familysearch.org

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/kilkenny/index.html

Rootsweb: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik2/

I hope that some of this is helpful.

Best wishes,

Genealogy Support