Kilmurry McMahon baptisms and marriages (& deaths 1841-1848)

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Sduddy
Posts: 1827
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Kilmurry McMahon baptisms and marriages (& deaths 1841-1848)

Post by Sduddy » Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:11 am

Here attached is my transcription of Kilmurry McMahon baptisms 1845-1881: https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls ... 1/mode/1up

There are some gaps where pages may have fallen out of the register. Or maybe the register was mislaid for a while. Also, recording of births is very uneven at times: one month will have over twenty baptisms, the next month only two. I can see why these registers are not relied on very much to give exact figures for the effects of the Great Famine. But this register is a very, very valuable historical document indeed, showing as it does the numbers baptised in the early years of that famine. And, most unusually, it contains a register of deaths between 1844 – 1848, which I will post later, though maybe I am intruding and that someone from the parish would like to do it. There are just 8 pages (pp 137 – 144).

Here is a description of a baptism from Asenath Nicholson’s ‘The Annals of the Famine in Ireland’, first published in 1851 - my copy is by Lilliput Press, 1998 (p. 131):
On the route this day, among all the rarities, was the christening in a miserable dark cabin by this priest …. May I never see the like again! The dark mud cabin, the straw on which the mother lay, the haggard countenances of the starving group, the wooden bowl of ‘holy water’, the pinch of salt, the mummery of the priest while he was putting the salt of grace on its lips, the blowing with his breath to infuse the regenerating spirit into the soul – were such a trifling, fearful combination of nonsense and profanity to my dark mind that it was quite difficult to keep a usual degree of sobriety. But the priest escaped with no other lecture than an exclamation of nonsense, when we were out of the cabin.
To do these poor priests justice, they have laboured long and hard since the Famine, and have suffered intensely. They have the most trying difficulties to encounter, without the least remuneration. In the best of times, their stiputalated sum is about ten pounds per year, the remainder must be made up by ‘hook and by crook’. Weddings and christenings formerly gave what the generosity of guests could bestow, which was always so small that a Protestant lady once, from pure benevolence, attended one of these cabin-weddings in a poor part of the country and put four pounds into the plate as it was passed around. (end of quote).

Asenath Nicholson was a most extraordinary woman, and really quite loveable, and I would like to write something about her on this International Women’s Day, but that piece by her will have to suffice for now. I’ve started on the Kilmurry McMahon marriages and will have them ready next week.

Sheila

The transcription, which was attached here, has been transferred to Donated Material: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... ecords.htm
Last edited by Sduddy on Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Sduddy
Posts: 1827
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Kilmurry McMahon baptisms and marriages (& deaths 1841-1

Post by Sduddy » Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:56 am

Here is my transcription of Kilmurry McMahon marriages 1836-1881: https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls ... 1/mode/1up

Sheila

The transcription, which was attached here, has been tranferred to Donated Material: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... cmahon.htm
Last edited by Sduddy on Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sduddy
Posts: 1827
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Kilmurry McMahon baptisms and marriages (& deaths 1841-1

Post by Sduddy » Wed Mar 21, 2018 4:13 pm

Here is my transcription of Kilmurry McMahon deaths 1841-1848: https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls ... 1/mode/1up

Sheila

The transcription, which was added here, has been transferred to Donated Material: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... cmahon.htm

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