Finding contemporary records and accounts of the 1916 Rising can be challenging. Many of the sources used to reconstruct the 1916 Rising and identify the participants and victims were compiled in the aftermath or the years and decades that followed. However, the Dublin Fire Brigade Ambulance Log is a contemporary record of the calls that came into the
Read MoreCSORP
The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers (CSORP) is a vast and rambling collection of material that is pitted with gems for genealogical research. If your ancestor had any interaction with the machine of the state, there is a possibility that they will be documented in this collection.The CSORP can be found in the National Archives of Ireland.
Read MoreBoard of Guardians Minute Books
Children who were orphaned or abandoned and found themselves in the Workhouse were often ‘boarded out’ by the Board of Guardians, and details of what happened to them were recorded in the Board of Guardians Minute Books. Many of those who were boarded out were infants, sent to women who could nurse them. The Board paid a fee to the nurse for their
Read MoreIrish Wills
I recently found a transcript of an Irish will in the District Registry Wills Books in the National Archives of Ireland. These are an often forgotten source for testamentary records because the assumption is that all Irish wills and letters of administration were destroyed in 1922, but this is not the case. District Registry Will Books Will books survive
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 MoreBetham’s Sketch Pedigrees
In a previous blog, the work of Sir William Betham and his collection of Genealogical Abstracts held at the National Archives was discussed. In conjunction with the Genealogical Abstracts, Betham compiled an extensive collection of sketch pedigrees. In large part these pedigrees were sketched from the material extracted from the Betham’s abstracts
Read MoreBetham’s Genealogical Abstracts
Sir William Betham (1779-1853) was appointed deputy Ulster King of Arms in 1807 and Ulster King of Arms in 1820. Betham spent a lifetime collating indexes and abstracts of the manuscripts held in the Record Tower of Dublin Castle. Although Betham was a polymath, it is his work in the Records Tower for which Irish genealogists and family historians
Read MoreGriffith’s Valuation House Books
Griffith’s Valuation House Books are the notebooks that were used by valuators to record information on the majority of the buildings of Ireland, be it dwelling house, out-office or even lavatory in order to place a rateable value on the building and these records formed part of the information-gathering process required for the completion of the
Read MoreA Note on Burial Registers
Roman Catholic Burial Registers are relatively uncommon in Ireland prior to the 1830s and those that do exist seldom offer more detail than the name of the deceased. However, Burial Registers for Church of Ireland Parishes, where those records survived the fire at the Public Records in 1922, can be quite informative. Standardised forms were introduced
Read MoreA Will Proved a Century Ago: What Can be Done Online?
As an exercise in what can be achieved in online research I recently randomly opened-up a copy of the Calendar of Wills & Administrations for a century ago and read the following calendar entry: HOPKINS, Miles Richard. 10th January 1912. Probate of Will of Miles Richard Hopkins late of 1 Lower Sackville Street, Dublin and 1 Brighton Terrace,
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