A huge resource of family history information is available in the journal articles, books and manuscripts that have been written by genealogy enthusiasts and scholars over centuries. Flyleaf Press has just published a second edition of our listing of these family histories. It is called ‘Sources for Irish Family History – 2021’ and is available as an e-book from here.
The new 282-page e-publication contains some 6,500 references dealing with around 2,500 families, more than double that in the previous edition. We have added the many new books and articles that have been published since the first edition in 2001, as well as older material that has been found since. The sample page below illustrates the typical content. These are mainly accounts of particular family lines and vary from fond and emotional accounts of families and their ancestral homes to dispassionate, well-researched family studies and pedigrees. A large proportion of these are written by people about their own families, but there also studies by historians and biographers with no family linkage. The publications by family members are valuable in putting some human dimension to the barren facts that may be obtained from the usual range of records. No church or civil record will inform us that our ancestors were wonderful singers or dancers; or of the details of their travels or their occupation; nor whether their recorded marriages were the culminations of great romances, or of family arrangements. Such information can occasionally be found in the memoirs & letters detailed in the articles and books listed.
On-line availability of this material has improved dramatically in recent years. Many local history journals have been put on-line by societies, and older books have been digitised by organisations such as archive.org, google books and individual libraries. A full description of how to access these is included in the book introduction.
An analysis of the families which are the subject of the cited articles and books will show that they do not reflect the prevalence of Irish family names. Unsurprisingly, there are more publications on the families who comprised the landed gentry and aristocracy. In short, the family of the landlord is better documented than that of the tenant. Among the reasons, is that the landed gentry tended to have individual family members with the time and resources to compile family histories. These people are wonderfully described on the National Archives of Ireland website as ‘those with time and money to preclude the necessity for a career and with sufficient free time to indulge themselves in leisured pursuits’. Fortunately for family historians, these leisured pursuits often included genealogy, and the products of their researches were often valuable accounts of families and their activities.
The book also lists all of the myriad sources in which the articles are published. The majority are local history periodicals published by the many local history societies around Ireland. The content varies from the local knowledge available in, for example, The Rindoon Journal from Roscommon to the academic scholarship presented in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Papers from over 100 periodicals are included, the vast majority published in Ireland. The availability of a local history society in an area is clearly a factor in determining whether publications on local families are available. Some of these societies have been in existence for over 150 years and their back issues are a huge resource of information on local issues and families. Another source of useful information on the more prominent families are publications on the ‘big houses’ and estates. These will invariably include information on the families who built or lived in them.
Some recent reviews of the title are:
This new and enlarged reference work …is a large index to published family histories, and so is a guide to what can be found, and especially useful to those researchers unfamiliar with Irish publications. …. will prove useful to researchers of individual names in perhaps bringing to light some unfamiliar source material….This is a publication that will itself become a permanent reference source for finding Irish families. The Irish Genealogist. Vol 15(4) 2021.
Sources for Irish Family History 2021 is the ultimate resource for people trying to conduct their own Irish family history research. Irish Central
When researching our ancestors, we appropriately concentrate on primary sources such as civil and church records. We are often left hungry for details about individuals and their personal lives — rarely-found nuggets which add color and dimension to family history. Admittedly, locating them seems like seeking a needle in a haystack. Flyleaf Press has just published a second edition of a bibliography …… lists some 6,500 references books, journal articles and other material on 2,500 families. Irish Genealogical Society International Blog.
The e-book can be ordered from HERE and the details are:
‘Sources for Irish Family History – 2021; a listing of books and articles on the history of Irish families‘
Compiled by: James G Ryan
282 pages including a detailed Introduction. It is available in Calibre which is usable on all e-book platforms (Apple, Android and on PC, Tablet or Mobile).
ISBN: 978-1-907990-39-7
Price: €18
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Other articles in our series on Irish Family Sources:
- Petty Sessions– the records of local courts
- Know your place – Irish places and their names
- Civil Registration of births, deaths and marriage in Ireland
- Grand Jury Presentments – records of local councils on payments for public works and staff
- Rentals – management of tenants by estates and the records created
- How comprehensive are Irish Civil Records?
- Travellers’ accounts of Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries
- Census returns in Gaelic or Irish language
- Missing Friends – Personal Ads in the Boston Pilot
- 60+ blogs with names extracted from manuscript sources. A handy map index to these is available here.
