Kilkenny Church

Hello,
My husband and I are very excited to travel to Ireland this October.  We would like to visit Kilkenny.  My husband's 4th great grandfather immigrated to the US  in 1860, which began the lineage of our family in the Philadelphia area.  We would like to see the church (Kilkenny Church) that his ancestor and his wife were married in before setting sail across the Atlantic.  In my search for the church, I have found a few churches, but not sure how to narrow down which one is correct.  Please advise if there is any advise.  I have more information about his relatives if that may help.  Thank you!

With kind regards,

Cindy Gwynn

Hello Cindy,

How exciting to hear you are planning a trip to Ireland with your husband!

Ireland in October is really lovely, our leaves have turned and the crisp mornings make way to some cloud-free days, sometimes!

So happy to hear about your husband's connection to our wee island. The best way to go around searching for your husband's ancestors is through the paper trail. You are looking for birth, marriage and death certificates of his parents and their parents until you can trace it back to the first person from Ireland.

Before the civil registration in 1864, these documents were held in the individual parishes. There are a few handy websites you can look at to help out with your search like Roots Ireland, Family Search and Ireland Reaching Out. 

Also, there is some excellent resource information here on the community with our Helpful Research Tips post. Please have a look and see if any of the details help you with your search. We have several posts on the forum that may be of interest, including Tracing your Irish ancestors: A three-step guide by Brian Mitchell.

If you would like to post the information details here, maybe one of our fellow members or industry partners would be able to assist with some more information too.

Hope you find what you’re looking for, please do let us know how it’s going and if you need any more information, we’ll do our best to help!

Have a lovely day!

Romina