This is something I have been thinking about for a long time....mainly because the whole thing on parishes confuses people so much. Course - by the time I'm finished here now you might all end up more confused than you were to begin with :-( We have parishes of a name, we have townlands of maybe the same name, we have RC parishes and we have Civil parishes - and then we have parishes of the established church (COI) which pretty much stuck with the boundaries of the Civil parish - right? ;-) Now - I'm Irish, born, bred and brought up and still here. Whenever I've been abroad and have been asked where I am from - the first answer is Ireland, then I might be asked where in ireland and I'd say Laois. If I met someone from laois anywhere in the world and they asked where I was from - I'd say Rathdowney. If I met someone from Rathdowney and they asked where I was from - I'd name the street or the townland. Today, we'd never mention a parish - civil or otherwise. Think back to 150 years ago....how did people think then, what did they say when asked where are you from.....would it have been like me and my replies (which are probably along the same lines as any Irish person would give today). People 150 years ago did think of parish.....and they would put that in there after saying Laois.....and before the specific area. *But* would they have been talking Civil parish or Religious parish? I think it would have been Civil. Aha - but Parish records are listed according to Dioceses. Each diocese has a number of counties associated with it. There are RC and COI Dioceses and parishes........and these do not have the same boundaries. To make matters worse, going through the literature I can see that the parish structure was different back then as well. Today, in my home town and even where I live in Dublin - there is one parish - which takes in that town/area. We have one church... Back then - there were parishes yes.....and the RC parishes may not exactly have followed the boundaries of teh COI parishes adn teh COI parishes did not necessarily follow the boundaries of the Civil parishes - because there were UNIONS..... Depending on the numbers of people living in a civil parish or even a townland - the area may have been united with another parish somewere close by. At least I think it probably depended on population - probably whether or not there were enough religious to go round as well. Then, in time these Unions may have broken up and either gained parochial status for themselves or been added to a different Union. Each Union would have had so many chapels or churches. Some of these would have fallen into disrepair.....new churches built maybe in a different part of the civil parish - but still part of the same religious parish. Names changed, phonetics produced what look like absolutely different places...your ancestors say they came from A and you can't find it anywhere - *but* if you really look at the history books - they can tell you about these old names. You can't find your ancestors in the church records which you think they should be in .....but if you look at the history books they might just point you to somewhere else. Theres still hope.........you just have to find it. So I don't know how many years now that I have been 'going on' about geography and about how genealogy to me is more than just names - lists and lists......... and from what I have been reading recently I *know* that the more you can find out about that placename which you have from your ancestors.....the better the chance of you actually finding some clue as to where records just might be if they are there. it's one thing to see a church marked on an OS map of Ireland - even the early ones, and to think that the church is in the correct locality and could it be the parish you are looking for (religious) but if you read history books on the parish you may find out that the particular site you have been eying was actually a ruin in the mid 1800's and that the new church was located in a different townland altogether - and that you had never thought to check the records for that other town because it might be in the wrong county even. Anyway - these are just thoughts. Jane