This list correlates County Kerry's Catholic parishes with the Civil parishes they are in. It also lists the date their  parish registers started. Thanks for Joanne Joyce for contributing most of this information, which Waterlilys has transcribed. Sources: "Tracing Your Kerry Ancestors" by M. O'Connor and "Irish Record Sources" by J. Ryan, and "A Guide to Irish Parish Registers" by B. Mitchell. Note: there are discrepancies between these sources.

Confused about Civil/Church of Ireland/Catholic parishes?:

"During the last two thousand years Co. Kerry has been divided into a number of different areas for the purpose of civil and ecclesiastical (church) administration.

Civil Divisions:

The Civil Parish is the key to finding your Irish ancestors as most record categories embrace this geographical division. The Townland is the smallest administrative unit of land ... It is the basic address used by rural Irish people. Each civil parish is comprised of a number of townlands. There are 87 Civil Parishes in Kerry.

Ecclesiastical Divisions:

Church of Ireland Parish: In most cases the Church of Ireland parish is consistent with the Civil parish and has the same name.

Catholic Parish: There are 45 Catholic Parishes in Co. Kerry. Unlike Church of Ireland parishes, most do not conform to the boundaries of the civil parish, and will often not have the same name as the civil parishes they comprise. A single Catholic parish may include more than one civil parish, or one civil parish may cover several different Catholic parishes." Guide to Tracing your Kerry Ancestors by Michael O'Connor

Therefore: For someone living in a particular Civil parish, there may be one or more Catholic parishes that cover parts of that Civil parish (therefore the numbering of Catholic parishes below). Remember, Civil and Catholic parishes may have the same name but not necessarily similar boundaries.

Diocese of Kerry and Aghadoe
Local Catholic Church History and Genealogy
Civil Parish Map
Catholic Parish Map

Look under Civil Parish column, the Catholic church(s) location(s) that the residents of the civil parish are likley to have attended is noted in the next column. If the relevant church is not located within the civil parish, the reader is referred to the appropriate church and civil parish. Thus "see Killaha" means that Killaha Church serves the inhabitants of this civil parish, and that it is detailed opposite the civil parish of the same name. If the church parish does not have the same name as the civil parish, it will be referred to, for example, as "Abbeydorney, see O'Dorney"

Most registers are still in local custody (Parish Priests). Microfilm copies of most registers are available in the National Library of Ireland (NLI), some through the LDS/FHC libraries. To view the films at the NLI, permission is needed from the Bishop of Kerry. The Maritime Museum has microfilm of some Catholic Parishes and will research them for a reasonable fee.

If you have first hand knowledge that the information here is incorrect please let us know! Waterlilys

* As per the National Library in Dublin as to the existance of films of the Prior parish registers: "The old Catholic parish of Ballinskellig is now called Prior Co. Kerry. I cannot see any references that the National Library hold records for either the parishes of Ballinaskelligs or Prior. You will have to contact the Parish in order to ascertain if there are if fact any recorded at all for that period."

The address is follows:
Very Rev. Michael Hussey PP,
St. Michael's,
Ballinaskelligs,
Killarney,
Co. Kerry
Ireland

In Grenham's Tracing your Irish Ancestors the Kerry Map at page xxii. has a note regarding Prior parish which states: "Earliest records in local custody". This was confirmed by Eneclann at Trinity College.(Thanks to Russ McCrory for this information)

Archdiocese: Cashel

Dioceses: Cloyne, Cork and Ross, Kerry, Killaloe, Limerick, Waterford and Lismare

Diocese of Kerry and Aghadoe

"Diocese: A Diocese is the territory or churches subject to the jurisdiction of a bishop.

The Diocese of Kerry and Aghadoe (Kerriensis Et Aghadoensis), suffragan of Cashel, Ireland, is sixty-six miles in length, and sixty-one in breadth, containing a superficial area of 983,400 acres, and extending over the whole County of Kerry and a portion of that of Cork; in 1901 the Catholic population was 187,346. This diocese, in its actual condition, was constituted by the union of two very ancient sees -- Ardfert and Aghadoe, but the precise date of this incorporation cannot now be definitely ascertained. All we know is that it had taken place before the Synod of Rathbrassil (1110), for it is there proposed and sanctioned that the see of the then united Diocese of Ardfert and Aghadoe should be at Rathass near Tralee. Our ecclesiastical historians give a detailed account of the various journeys of St. Patrick, who, though visiting the neighbouring County of Limerick, never set foot in Kerry, being content (as the ancient chroniclers say) with giving this remote corner of Ireland his blessing, while standing on some point of vantage in West Limerick and viewing the lofty mountains and vast bogs of ancient Kerry. Nevertheless, we know from many sources that Christianity was introduced here at a very early period. This fact is attested not merely by the annalists, but also by the many monuments of great antiquity and Christian character which still exist in various districts of the diocese. The first bishop whom we find mentioned in connection with the history of Kerry, was named Erc, and there can be no reasonable doubt that this bishop was St. Erc of Slane, who died according to the Annals of Ulster in 512. He exercised episcopal jurisdiction in the county before the birth of St. Brendan, and from what we read about his relations with that great saint, must have resided there almost continuously for several years afterwards. It is very probable he came to Kerry soon after the mission of St. Benignus, who was sent by St. Patrick in 450 to preach to the tribes of West Munster, and "to unite them to the Church by the saving waters of baptism". This visit of St. Benignus was comparatively short, for he was called away to North Clare and Connaught, where his apostolic labours may have been more urgently needed. To complete, however, the conversion of Kerry thus auspiciously begun, St. Patrick sent one of his most zealous and devoted bishops, St. Erc, who had spiritual charge not only of Kerry, but also of a wide range of south-west Limerick, in the heart of which lay the convent of St. Ita at Killeedy, over which he seems to have had jurisdiction. He was the special friend and tutor of St. Brendan, the patron of Kerry, whose feast is celebrated on 16 May. There is not among the ancient saints of Erin a more interesting figure than this patron of Kerry. His travels by land, and still more his voyages by sea, have made him famous from the earliest times. Very ancient manuscript copies of his famous seven years' voyage in the Atlantic Ocean are found in several European libraries, while his romantic career was a favorite theme with the poets and romancers of medieval Europe. (See Brendan, Saint.)

The other ancient see included in the modern Diocese of Kerry, is that of Aghadoe. Another native saint, Finan Cam, was the first to build a church at Aghadoe, which in after times became the see of a bishop. It was this saint also who founded the famous monastery and school of Innisfallen, a lovely island in the Lower Lake of Killarney. It was here that one of the greatest of Ireland's kings was educated - Brian Boru, who destroyed the power of the Danes at Clontarf in 1014, while his distinguished professor, Maelsuthain O'Carroll, was most probably the original compiler of the famous Annals of Innisfallen. The principal copy of this valuable work is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It begins with a general history of the great empires of the world down to A.D. 430. The remainder, and the more valuable portion of the Annals, contains a brief chronicle of Ireland to 1319. This monastery, owing to its situation, escaped the ravages of the Danes, who had worked such ruin on other churches in Kerry. Unfortunately, there are few records of the early bishops either of Ardfert or Aghadoe previous to the Norman invasion in the twelfth century. All we know is, each had its distinct succession of bishops, and each cathedral had its separate chapter. But these, in the days of persecution, were allowed to lapse. The chapter of Kerry was re-established by Brief of His Holiness, Pius IX, in 1858. Owing to persecution, and the disturbed state of the country, this diocese had no bishops from 1610 to 1641, and again from 1653 to 1703, being governed during both these periods by vicars Apostolic. From this latter date there has been no interruption in the episcopal succession.

Many of its bishops have been men of distinction. We may mention Dr. Richard O'Connell (1641-1653), who at a very trying time successfully resisted the determined attacks of heresy on the faith of the people. In modern times Kerry had Dr. David Moriarty (1856-1877), a most accomplished pulpit orator, and Dr. Daniel McCarthy (1878-1881), for many years professor in the College of Maynooth, and author of valuable works on Sacred Scripture. The religious orders were introduced into the diocese chiefly through the piety and zeal of some of the ancient lords of the county. The Franciscans came to Ardfert in 1253, to Muckross in 1440, and to Lislaughtin in 1464. The Dominican convent in Tralee was founded in 1213. The Cistercians built the Abbey of Kyrie Eleison in Odorney in 1154, while at a much earlier period religious communities existed at Killagha in the parish of Kilcoleman, at Derrinane, at Rattoo, etc. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth all those religious establishments were destroyed, the priests were expelled, while their property was confiscated. The successful career of Cromwell and his lieutenants had a still more disastrous effect on the religious condition of this remote see in southwest Munster. In modern times there has been a satisfactory revival. Though these ancient monasteries, and the parochial churches throughout the diocese, were utterly ruined in days of persecution, there has been a complete restoration from the wreck and disaster of those sad times. The Dominicans are again established in Tralee, while the Franciscans flourish -- if not in lovely Muckross, still in Killarney not far away. The parish churches, which were mostly thatched cabins not so long ago, are now magnificent stone structures raised through the zeal and energy of a faithful priesthood, aided by the generosity and religious spirit of the laity of the county. The ancient cathedrals at Ardfert and Aghadoe are now in ruins, but the modern cathedral of Kerry, canonically erected in the ancient parish of Aghadoe by special Brief dated 18 May, 1858, surpasses even old Ardfert -- still magnificent, though in ruins. It was designed by Pugin and was begun under Bishop Egan in 1840. For over fifty years it remained in an unfinished state, but the present occupant of the See of Kerry and Aghadoe, Most Rev. Dr. John Mangan, has with char- acteristic energy undertaken the completion of this magnificent structure according to the original designs of its celebrated architect. Dr. Mangan was born in the parish of Listowel in 1843, and was educated at Killarney and Maynooth, where he won the highest academical distinctions. His missionary life in Kerry was mainly spent in the parishes of Glengariff and Kenmare, which, owing to their extent, always demand great labour on the part of their pastor. As a reward for his energy and zeal, he was appointed archdeacon of Aghadoe, parish priest of Kenmare, and vicar-general of the diocese in 1901. He was raised to the episcopate, 21 July, 1904. This diocese consists of 51 parishes, has 49 parish priests, two admin- istrators, and 69 curates. It has 99 churches, 2 friaries, 5 monasteries, and 17 convents." The Catholic Encyclopedia 1910