St Eunan's, Letterkenny, Co Donegal

List of Marriage Lines - An Important Record

 The following is a list of the dispensations in Banns, commonly called the “Marriage Lines,” from the records at St. Eunan’s Letterkenny.  The records of those years have not only now an historical interest, but beside they may prove helpful in enabling some to determine with a fair degree of accuracy their age.  Thus the eldest members of a family whose parents were married in 1858 would presumably be now qualified on the score of age for the old-age pension.  It should be remembered, too, that the names of some of the parishes in every day speech then and now differ.  It would be well also to keep in memory that the couples dispensed in Banns are usually put down to the parish from which the application was made for the dispensations, though frequently only one of them belonged to that parish.  The records in Banns are mainly concerned with the parishes near Letterkenny, though occasionally an entry relative to a parish at a distance is to be found. (J. O’Doherty, Adm.)

The following has been transcribed and submitted by Deirdre Doherty.

They were printed in the Derry Journal 23 & 30 July and 6, 13 & 20 August 1926 and amount to 622 marriage banns which took place at St Eunan's between 1853 and 1857