Library Forum

I fear that all the original Marriage Licence Bonds for the Diocese of Killaloe perished in the Public Record Office in 1922.

However, various indexes, abstracts, etc., have survived. I have looked at these in various places (online, published and in archives) over the years, but there doesn't seem to be any comprehensive online list of them. The best summary that I have found is in `A note on sources', an appendix to Irish Migrants in the Canadas: A New Approach by Bruce S. Elliott (1988).

Those that I have traced in a brief search are as follows:

1. 1719-1845:
Indexes to marriage licence bonds for the Dioceses of Killaloe, 1719-1845, Clonfert, 1739 and 1815-44, Limerick, 1827-44, Ardfert, 1820, and 1835. http://sources.nli.ie/Record/MS_UR_069863 Original in National Archives of Ireland; microfilm in National Library of Ireland.

2. 1777-1845 (188 bonds):
A List Of Entries Of Marriage Licence Grants In Killaloe Court And Register Book Transcribed By E. J. Mcauliffe
published in The Irish Genealogist, Vol. 5, No. 6, Nov. 1979, pp. 710-9.
The Killaloe Court and Register Book is also in the National Archives of Ireland (Call number: 4 201 31 according to
http://humphrysfamilytree.com/sources.html )

3. 1680-1720 and 1760-1762 are in British Museum Add MS 31882-3 (acquired from Maurice Lenihan)
Published in Irish Genealogist, Vol. 5, No. 5, Nov 1978, pp.580-90 by Dr. R. T. D. Fitzgerald
These are available online at http://www.celticcousins.net/ireland/killaloe.htm and
http://web.archive.org/web/200602031006 ... llaloe.htm
There is a typed transcript on LDS microfilm 100239.

4. 1766-1845 names but no dates listed at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.anc ... ne_mlb.htm
Is this just an index to McAuliffe's transcriptions?

5. Philip Crossle (12 Mar 1875 Armagh-19 Dec 1953 Dublin) took up the genealogical work started by his father Dr Francis C Crossle. Philip Crossle's pre-1922 notes from the PRO include information from MLBs dated 1772-1868, at least for the surname Brew. These are listed at
http://brew.clients.ch/MLBonds.htm (where the surname is mis-spelled Gossle). There is only one entry after 1845, William Brew and Cath. Foley in 1867. Did Crossle make similar notes for other surnames?

I presume the Marriage Licence Bond became obsolete with the introduction of civil registration of non-Catholic marriages on 1 Apr 1845.

This subject is dicussed in the 28th report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records and Keeper of the State Papers in Ireland (1896), available in the Local Studies Centre in Ennis. See pages 5 and 6 of the Keeper's report.

The 1896 report suggests that the marriage licences were not transferred back to Dublin from the British Museum.

It also suggests that the British Museum have other documents of the former Consistorial Court of the Diocese of Killaloe, including Citations, Sentences, Petitions, Inventories, etc., 1671 - 1824.

Polycarp

A belated reply. Marriage Licences appear to have been still in use up to 1866 for the Diocese of Cloyne (North and East Cork) according to the volumes of indexes in the National Archives. It is one I use regularly.