Clonmellon Roman Catholic Parish Registers

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

The Parish of Clonmellon in the Diocese of Meath maintained records of baptisms, deaths, and marriages going back as far as 1757, however they are quite fragmentary, particularly before the 1820s.

Baptisms

There are five microfilms in the National Library of Ireland containing parish records from Clonmellon, microfilms number 04187/1 through 5.

• From January 6, 1759 through April 30, 1766, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 1. Months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. There are regularly five to ten baptisms per month, so there is no indication in a gap in recording.
• From May 1766 through December 1767, there are no baptismal records.
• From January 1 1768 through March 28, 1772, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 1. Again, months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. Baptisms continue at a regular pace with no indication of gaps.
• From April 1772 through December 1772, there are no baptismal records.
• From January 1, 1773 through February 2, 1776, baptismal records are intact in microfim 1. Again, months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. Baptisms continue at a regular pace with no indication of gaps.
• From February 3, 1776 through Feb 19, 1780, there are no baptismal records.
• From February 20, 1780 through December 1780, baptismal records are sporadic in microfilm 1. There are three entries for February and March, and a handful of entries in late September and October.
• From January 1781 through August 1782, baptismal records are intact but differ from the previous records in several respects.
  • For the first time, the family's townland of residence is listed.
  • The year becomes difficult to ascertain. Dates continue largely in order, in what appears to be an unbroken sequence with at least ten baptisms each month. Months are clearly marked, but the year is only given twice by the original hand, in the heading for Jan 178[smudge], and six months later in July 1781. The final digit in the January entry could be taken for a 0 or a 1, but the July dating is very clear, and it is from this single date that we can reliably date this sequence.
  • A second hand has inserted his own understanding of the years. Following the original hand's dating of July 1781, the second hand has written "AD 1782" in uncial between the following December and January. This is believable. However, the following July has been glossed with "1783." There are no obvious gaps to accommodate an entire missing year, so this seems to be in error.
  • Page 62 ends with three entries for May 1782 which are out of order. The series resumes in order on page 63, so these may just be errata.
• From September 1782 through February 1784, baptismal records are severely fragmentary on microfilm 1.
  • The months of September and October for 1782 (or 1783 per the redactor) are severely out of order.
  • The sequence stops after this October. There are two final baptisms recorded in January of the following year. The year cannot be reliably ascertained due to doubts about the redactor.
  • The final page contains a note from the redactor: First entry - 1759 Last entry in this book is 11 Jan 1784 (Some blank years)
• From February 16, 1784 through September 8, 1784, baptismal records are intact on microfilm 1. The year is neatly written on top of the first page in this section, however, the decade digit looks like an 8 on its side. This appears to be a handwriting quirk of the author, which he continues to use into the 1800s. This sequence does not appear to have any gaps internally. The custom of recording the townland continues.
• From September 9, 1784 through February 12, 1785, there are no baptismal records.
• From February 13, 1785 through April 29, 1791, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 2. Months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. Baptisms continue at a regular pace with no indication of gaps. Records continue on May 1 in another volume, which technically means that no baptismal records exist for April 30. It's very believable that there simply were no baptisms on this date, rather than that there was a gap.
• From May 1, 1791 through January 22, 1787, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 3. Months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. Baptisms continue at a regular pace with no indication of gaps.
• From January 23, 1787 through April 30, 1787, there are no records on the microfilm. A page may have been missed in imaging.
• From May 1, 1787 through March 10, 1809, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 3. Months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. Baptisms continue at a regular pace with no indication of gaps.
• From March 11, 1809 through April 4, 1809, there are no records on the microfilm. A page may have been missed in imaging.
• From April 5, 1809 through November 2, 1809, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 3. Months and years are neatly marked, and dates are in order. Baptisms continue at a regular pace with no indication of gaps.
• From November 3, 1809 through January 2, 1815, there are no records.
• From January 3, 1815 through October 24, 1815, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 2. This appears to be a missing page from another volume indexed out of order.
• From October 25, 1815 through June 17, 1819, there are no records.
• From June 18, 1819 through July 10, 1845, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 4.
• From June 11, 1845 through August 25, 1872, baptismal records are intact in microfilm 5.

Marriages

• From June 17, 1757 to June 9, 1771, marriages are intact in microfilm 1. There do not appear to be obvious gaps.
• From June 10, 1771 to May 2, 1774, there are no marriage records.
• From May 3, 1774 to February ? 1776, marriages are intact in microfilm 1.
• From February ? 1776 through 1780, there are no marriage records except a handful of records at the beginning of the page which later starts 1781. These could very well be the end of 1780, but they are not explicitly dated.
• From January 23, 1781 through  ? September, 1781 marriage are intact in microfilm 1.
• From January 1784 through August 20, 1784 marriages are intact in microfilm 1.
• From August 16, 1784 through

Deaths

• From January 30, 1757 through October 3, 1770 deaths are intact in microfilm 1.
• From October 4, 1770 through June 3, 1774 deaths are missing.
• From June 4, 1774 through February 4, 1776 deaths are intact in microfilm 1.
• From June 5, 1775 until October, 1780 deaths are missing except for on in 1777 and one in 1778 in microfilm 1.
• From October 1780 through September 17, 1882 deaths are intact in Microfilm 1.