this was posted to the Kilkenny Message board, if you want to reply to it, click on the link Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/WWC.2ACI/3315.3 Message Board Post: Julie, Here's the detail on Callan and Kyle in Co. Kilkenny by Townland, civil parish and poor law union: Ballycallan 331 acres, Crannagh Ballycallan Kilkenny CALLAN T. xx Callan Callan Callan Callan North 21 acres Callan Callan Callan Callan South 96 acres Callan Callan Callan There are also Ballycallan and Callan civil parishes and a Callan Poor Law Union which all have many townlands. There are also Townlands of Kyle as follows: Kyle 177 acres Kells Kilmaganny Callan Kyle East 186 acres Kells Coolaghmore Callan Kyle West 223 acres Kells Coolaghmore Callan This information is from the URL I included in my previous post, i.e. http://www.seanruad.com That website lists the names of all the civil divisions in Ireland and can be searched by Townland, Civil Parish, Barony, Poor Law Union, Province, and County You can also search that list with various "match" types including exact name matches, matches for parts of names, etc. The website is a great help for anyone researching in Ireland. Townlands and civil parishes aren't the same as towns, i.e. market centres and religious parishes. They're civil divisiions and unless there happens to be a town/village/market centre of the same name, which happens in only a small per centage of the names, you won't find the names on a road map. The same is true with civil parishes and the names of religious parishes. there's an explanation of these civil divisions at http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/2435.asp You'll also find a great deal of genealogical information at the Co. Kilkenny website which is http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/index.htm In the section "old English families" you'll find detail on St. Legers. The list of all landowners in Co. Kilkenny in 1876 is at the following URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/records/1876land.htm?o_xid=0039580444&o_lid=0039580444&sourceid=00395804447507610305 However, the great majority of people didn't own land but leased or rented it. There was a very small number of people who owned land. That would begin to change in the late 1870's with the establishment of the Land League, the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland (Anglican) as the Established Church and the 1881 and subsequent Land Acts which gave people the opportunity to purchase property. Since Counties Kilkenny and Tipperary are next to each other ( see http://www.mysecureform.com/iismaps/smallmap.jpg ) your ggrandmother probably lived in one of the townlands in Co. Kilkenny and the closest church was Co. Tippary which was where she was married. It would depend on her religion what churches would have been closest to where she lived. Since you know her birth date and parents names, and since it was after 1864 when civil records were established in Ireland you could request a copy of her long form birth cert which should give you the townland of her origination. You can request it either thru the county or the GRO in Dublin. Absent that, as I mentioned in my previous post, you would need her townland and civil parish to research her family. The following URL will give you detail on what UK records you can also research to get that information. While the URL includes how to resaerch in Co. Kerry, the beginning section "Where Do I Begin" is an excellent description of the records to research and each item on the list has a link which gives substantially more detail. While it does relate to research in US records, it's actually applicable to resaerch anywhere. Eilis O'Hara -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton