Background and Introduction

Castledermot Irish: Díseart Diarmada is a village in south Co. Kildare Ireland. The village is well known for it's ancient Franciscan Friary, its round tower and its high cross.

This 'Castledermot DNA Connections' project has been created as a home for anybody who has done a DNA test and is either from or has associations with the village and or parish of Castledermot including Kilkea and Levitstown (Maganey). Castledermot parish historically included Moone and therefore this project is additionally open to anybody from Moone parish.

Many people emigrated to Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand and it is hoped that if you are researching your Irish ancestry and find you have DNA connections with DNA testers whose genealogy shows connections to Castledermot, this project may help you discover your family connections. Additionally project members may be able to help others break through brick walls by helping narrow down searches to specific families.

This project is also open to DNA testers who can demonstrate through paper records a link to anybody from Castledermot or Moone Parish. This will therefore give access to the wider family of DNA testers throughout Ireland and beyond that have a link to Castledermot.

In terms of records Castledermot has on the most part a continuous set of Catholic Baptism and Marriage records from November 1789 to the present day. There seems to be some gaps in the records especially marriage records from 1822 - 1829 but other than this these records are intact. In addition to these records a full parish census was carried out for the parish of Castledermot and Moone in November 1840. This complete census whilst not online is available in the National Library of Ireland, 7 -8 Kildare St, Dublin, D02 P638 - call number POS 3511.

St James's Church of Ireland is the historic centre of Castledermot and home to the round tower and high crosses. The records of St James's go back to the early 18th century but regretfully many of these records were deposited in the Public Records Office (PRO) in Dublin prior to 1922 and were not copied beforehand. As a result of the 1922 fire many records were lost. Searches on the internet or contacting St. James parish will hopefully lead to success. As I get more information on the Castledermot Church of Ireland records I will add it here.

Joining criteria for this project

• Evidence of connections to Castledermot village or parish either through residence or through family links with current or past residents.

• Evidence of a strong DNA match with any person with proven connections to the village, parish or surrounding area.

• Please read the goals page sets out the purpose of this project and it should give you an indication if this research project is for you.

• If your Family Finder DNA is a transfer from another testing company please ensure you apply the $19 tools unlock so that research can be undertaken on matches.

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