RC Parish of O'Callaghan's Mills death register transcription
Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 4:02 pm
As of yesterday, the Clare County Library website has a transcription of the entire death register for the Parish of O'Callaghan's Mills, a portion of which (Jan 1846 through Dec 1850) has previously been transcribed and published by Gerard Madden in his 2017 book The Annals of the Poor: Scariff Workhouse Union. The new transcription is labelled as extending from 1843 to 1878 and is a total of 1244 entries. I happen to know that this new transcription is based on photographic images of each page, whereas Ger Madden had access to the actual register for his transcription but then had to return the book. Each of these methods can result in errors among individual entries, so each is a "best effort" and does not substitute for viewing the actual entry when there is some doubt. Just so you know, I was the first to try to send a photographer to the involved parish so that I could do the transcriptions, that would have benefited from my experience of transcribing this parish's baptisms and marriages, over 7000 entries -- however that was not to be.
This new transcription is the work of two people, as reported on the Clare Library webpage:
https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... lonlea.htm
Here are some things to look out for:
a. One of the transcribers is not familiar with old handwriting, so that the stylized "s" which looks like an "f" or "p" results in the townland Clashduff, written in the old days as Clasduff, appearing in this transcription as Clapduff.
b. Someone had a hard time with an uppercase "R" so that the locality Redbridge appears as Piedbridge, and surname Roughan (correct in Madden's transcription) is transcribed as Pioryleans.
c. Look for a transcribed name containing "v" to actually be an "r" -- a surname Morey (correct in Madden's work) appears in the new transcription as Movey.
Lastly, don't be misled by the database title, RC Death Records for Clonlea Civil Parish, as the 1244 entries cover the full extent of the RC Parish of O'Callaghan's Mills including the townlands composing the town of O'Callaghan's Mills & its environs, plus the entirety of the Killuran area. Father Quaid, who started the register, made an effort to become informed of the deaths throughout his entire parish.
This new transcription is the work of two people, as reported on the Clare Library webpage:
https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... lonlea.htm
Here are some things to look out for:
a. One of the transcribers is not familiar with old handwriting, so that the stylized "s" which looks like an "f" or "p" results in the townland Clashduff, written in the old days as Clasduff, appearing in this transcription as Clapduff.
b. Someone had a hard time with an uppercase "R" so that the locality Redbridge appears as Piedbridge, and surname Roughan (correct in Madden's transcription) is transcribed as Pioryleans.
c. Look for a transcribed name containing "v" to actually be an "r" -- a surname Morey (correct in Madden's work) appears in the new transcription as Movey.
Lastly, don't be misled by the database title, RC Death Records for Clonlea Civil Parish, as the 1244 entries cover the full extent of the RC Parish of O'Callaghan's Mills including the townlands composing the town of O'Callaghan's Mills & its environs, plus the entirety of the Killuran area. Father Quaid, who started the register, made an effort to become informed of the deaths throughout his entire parish.