Where to Start in Ireland

[aghadowey]

Is it possible that once I get an address I could work out the Parish does it work by radius of the church itself ?

The townland is the 'address' so once you have that information you can find out what the civil parish was and figure out where the nearest church was, etc.

[donnellysearch]

Ok get that now, thanks I need a dummies guide to Irish geaneology i think.

thanks

Jenny

[aghadowey]

See here for explanation of what townlands are:
www.ulsterancestry.com/ulster_townlands_by_county.html
http://www.rootschat.com/links/02lv/

[donnellysearch]

Hi right i think Im starting to get it,
If i'm right the majority of these old townland names have been forgotten and those that have the information charge. £25 one site i saw for a hand sketch of how to get to one of the few known to them. So what I really need if i could find one or use of one is this ordanance survery map 1833-46 which is scaled 1 mile to 6" so I can use the page references from that link up there.

Is this possible? Does anybody know where one can be viewed online?
i'm looking for

Kirley                    Maghera     Derry o/s ref 35,36
and
Town Parks,  Magherafelt Derry os ref 41,42,47

I see magherafelt is a place name still used but all the borders have changed and I can't find Maghera at all on modern day maps but to be honest after google earth and multimap failed i went back to looking for old maps.


thankyou
Jenny

[aghadowey]

Hold on here a minute Jenny.
The townlands still exist. In some places like County Londonderry in the 1970s road names were brought in as the postal address but the townlands are still there.
Maghera is still a small town/village which should show up on GoogleEarth (just checked to make sure-yes, still there where A29 (from Coleraine/Garvagh) intersects with A42)- just type 'Maghera' into GoogleEarth.
If you are looking at a modern map Maghera show also show up on the road between Coleraine and Cookstown.
Think you are making things more complicated than they need to be.
To get a good map of Maghera and Magherfelt area see:
http://ireland.kiwicelts.com/irishMap/ireMap.html
That site will allow you to see outline of townlands and modern road map at same time.
And here's the Ordnance Survey map site which might help:
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap

[donnellysearch]

found maghera thankyou I've decided to give it a rest a while. Researching Scotland I found easy In areas and place names I understood with scotlandspeople holding nearly every record I needed. Irelands records are just too fragmented for the dates I need It's taken me all day just to find out if maghera and magherafelt still exist let alone the townlands within them.

I'll leave Arthur Hugh Peter Catherine and James to somebody with more time and resources.

thanks to all of you I know for certain that our roots are from Derry and probably from Maghera and Magherafelt and without the help of people on this site i'd still be wondering how to start.

best of luck with all your searches

Jenny

[california dreamin]

Hi Jenny

I have just found this post and see it is quite old.  But I thought I would try and contact you anyway. The Kirley Donnelly's are my mob.  I don't know if you have managed to progress your research but I have spent quite a few years now trying to piece together the Donnelly's from in and around Kirley.  You haven't  mentioned too much about the Arthur you are looking for but I can tell you the Arthur from Kirley died in 1872 and is buried in Maghera. Perhaps this may rule him in or out?  Kind regards