During a recent search for a Maher family I once again stumbled into the mire of difficulty created by the spelling of Irish surnames in 19th century records. This is an obstacle that many Irish family history researchers will encounter during the course of their research. Mass digitization of Irish records has made the issue of the spelling of
Read MoreIrish Birth Marriage and Death Indexes
The Irish birth marriage and death indexes, which were released with great fanfare on the government website www.irishgenealogy.ie last year and quickly withdrawn for security reasons, have been released again. However, this time the public can only view the index entries for births over 100 years, marriages over 75 years and deaths over 50 years.
Read MoreEndowed Schools and Estate Papers
While searching for records for Midleton School, an Endowed School in Cork in the National Library of Ireland, I stumbled across the papers of Dr. Michael Quane, which included potentially useful 19th century estate rentals, valuations and a mini census of the protestant families of Maryborough from 1891. Michael Quane was born on 7th April 1889 in
Read MoreAssisted Emigration from Ireland
Two fascinating accounts of assisted emigration from Ireland have recently been inspected; State Aided Emigration Schemes from the Crown Estates in Ireland and Assistance to Emigrate from the Castlecomer Board of Guardians. The first of these, without provenance, relates to the Castlecomer Poor Law Union (Kilkenny) for the periods 1847-1853. This
Read MoreIrish Emigrant Women in New York
A new source that documents Irish emigrant women in late 19th and early 20th century New York has recently been published online. The records originate with Our Lady of Rosary Mission, established in 1883 in response to the campaigning of Charlotte Grace O’Brien. Charlotte Grace O’Brien was born in 1845 in Limerick the daughter of Irish Nationalist,
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