Famine in Ardrahan parish in Co Galway

Like many researchers I’ve been glued to the National Library of Ireland’s release of Catholic Parish registers this week. I am grateful and impressed they aren’t making any money out of it.

Today I’ve been looking at the parish of Ardrahan in Galway where one set of GG grandparents are reputed to be from. Sadly there weren’t many registers to digitise – there is a note at the end of the 1850 registers saying that in 1907, the 1850 – 1867 register was missing.

But the Marriage register 1843 – 1850 covers the famine and this is starkly reflected in the numbers of marriages which were solemnised each year as tabled below.

1845 – 16
1846 – 35
1847 – 15
1848 – 3
1849 – 6
1850 – 4

I understand that Co Galway was among the worst hit counties during the famine.