The National Archives of Ireland

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity of visiting The National Archives of Ireland in Dublin. As I didn’t know my way around Dublin, Shirley, one of the members of the tour group that I was with, came with me. She also had planned to do some research there and wanted to consult with the professional genealogist.

The professional genealogist that we met was a very helpful lady. Shirley had met with her on another trip and had consequently recognized her when she saw her on an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” I can’t remember what her name was but she was a soft spoken professional who knew her stuff.

This kind lady was friendly and was able to give me direction on two different matters within half an hour. The first was for a friend in Pembroke who wanted to know where to look for a marriage. The second was for me in locating exactly where my third great-grandfather came from in Wexford County. She suggested that I use the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffiths Evaluation to determine the parishes most likely to be his home parish before he sailed to Canada in 1820. I am able to do this as I know what his mother’s name was along with her maiden name and also his father’s name.

After determining which parishes would be the most likely, I met with this lady again and asked about my third great-grandparents who settled in Huron County in Ontario. There is a connection with Galway, but after meeting with her, I believe that this connection may just be the port that they sailed from in 1831 or 1832. This lady suggested that I do the same thing for this couple as I did for my other third great-grandfather, only, if I did not find anything in County Galway, I should expand the search to County Cavan as my third great-grandmother’s headstone says that she was from County Cavan.

Before going to Ireland, I thought that maybe she was from County Cavan and her family had moved to County Galway and that she had married there. I could find no record of there marriage there and very few records of either of the family names.

I then started to look at Griffith’s Evaluation and the Tithe Applotment Books for County Cavan. I found a number of parishes that the family names appear in, both together and by themselves. I think that I may have found where my third great-grandparents came from.

I now need to follow through with this work and take it to its conclusion.

I am so thankful that I decided to spend time at the National Archives of Ireland and consult with their genealogist. I know that I will gain more information about my family from this experience. I thank my Father in Heaven for sending the guidance to me so that I will find the correct information.

Day Seven – Field Trip, April 2016

There has been four days allocated for actual research for this trip to the Emerald Isle. Three of those days have been used. Tomorrow is the fourth day for research. After that, the trip will involve visiting parts of Ireland that allow us to get a bit of experiencing life in Ireland both present and past.

Today, I finally had the opportunity of visiting PRONI, (Public Records Office for Northern Ireland). We had an orientation session with one of the staff who describes himself as an historian. He is a great speaker, but he spent almost two and a half hours telling us what kind of records we can find at PRONI and how to access them. He also showed us some maps from the early 17^th century. They don’t seem to have lost any of their colour over the past 400 years.

When we were finally finished the orientation, most of the group went to visit the Presbyterian archives. I was originally going to go, but I decided to stay at PRONI to try to figure out their system. I’m glad that I did as the group came back to start some research about 4:30 pm. I was ready to go back to the hotel.

Shortly after I arrived back, my brother and I decided to go to dinner. We decided to go to a local bar or restaurant, knowing that it would be less expensive than some of the other places and it would have the menu that we both wanted, local food choices. We asked at the front desk about a place to go and we were directed to the Crown Fine Dining. 

Robinson’s is at the top of the building, the Crown on the second floor, and Fibber McGee’s is on the main floor. It took a while for our meals to come, but it was well worth the wait. My brother had the lamb stew, while I had gammon and champ. I had learned yesterday that champ is mashed potatoes. The potatoes are compressed into an oblong egg-like shape. Tonight, I asked what gammon was. It’s a thick ham steak and I enjoyed every bite of the gammon and champ. My brother also enjoyed his meal. The restaurant was about eight blocks from our hotel and so we had our exercise both before and after dinner.

While at the archives, I knew that I needed to find my great-great-great-grandparents marriage. I understand that it was approximately 1822 that they were married. I just had a thought now that it might be as late as 1828. I do know that they were married before immigrating to Canada in 1832. They also had at least one child before leaving Ireland. I also know that they were Methodists and that they maintained their religion for the rest of their lives. I was trying to find the Methodist church records so that I could look for their marriage and any other information that I could find there. One of the finding aids that we were taught about was The PRONI Guide to Church Records. 

While in Dublin, I was able to determine that they were not married in Galway. However, I may want to revisit that. Time will tell. Margaret’s headstone in Ontario gave information that she was originally from County Cavan. It would have been nice to know where in Cavan. I had also learned that the husband generally travelled to the wife’s home to be married. Some of the husbands even moved there permanently. 

There are a number of parishes in Cavan and I would have to look through each of them. I also did not know what the names of the parishes were and what records were available in each parish. I was beginning to think that I would have to go through the guide and hand-write every piece of information about the parishes. After the first four sets of information, I said to myself, “Self, there has to be a better and faster way of doing this. This is going to take longer than the time that I have available.” I had the idea that I could purchase a copy of the guide and then I would not have to write out the information. 

I should also mention that we had been told that there is a book that we should purchase. It has a map of every county with every parish indicated. When I approached one of the staff, she grabbed this book and came over to show how to use the two together. This is when I sat down to write the information and was inspired that I was being inefficient. I talked with another staff member and he told me that there is an online copy of the guide on their website. I thought that it was something that was a living document but it is in PDF format so it can be downloaded free of charge. I like those words (free of charge) and I also like the idea that it is in electronic format. Less space on the shelf. 

I was also shown how to determine how many people of a given surname would be in the county that you are researching in. The staff member used Griffiths Evaluation, which dates from the mid 1840s to 1880s. I saw that the Tithe Applotment books might be a better choice as they date from the 1820s which is the time period that I am looking at. When I decided to do this, the website suggested to use FamilySearch.org. So I did. I went through and found which parishes had people of their surnames and now, I just need to find which parishes have both of the surnames and get the records for those parishes.

I see that I have forgotten to mention that I read some of the beginning of the guide to the church records and found that in the beginning, the Wesleyan Methodists hierarchy strongly suggested that people should have their children baptised in the parish church or, in other words, the Church of Ireland (Anglican Church). Because there are very few marriage records before 1860, I am of the understanding that the same situation stands for marriage records. I now have some of the tools to find the marriage and christenings that I am looking for.

Tomorrow, we go to the Ulster Historical Center in the morning and to the Northern Ireland Family History Society Library in the afternoon.

And so the adventure continues.

Day Five – Field Trip, April 2016

I just thought that I would take a bit of time this afternoon to look after my blog. I anticipate being out relatively late tonight and don’t want to have to do this when I get back to my hotel room. I have to get up very early tomorrow morning.

This morning, I did sleep in to 7:00 am and still didn’t want to get up. I guess that it’s the jet lag that is affecting me. After a big breakfast, I took a walk over to the National Library of Ireland. It is very close to the hotel. I was there in about fifteen to twenty minutes.

I arrived a few minutes early but found a couple members of our group who were there to do research as well. Once we got in, we stored our extra things in a locker as we were not allowed to take up any bags or coats. I was able to take my camera and use it to photograph the records that I found. We each waited to speak with an expert who advised us about the records that we could access there. Most of the information that I was directed to was online and they had seven computers available for searches like this.

Yesterday, I did not have time to look at the Tithe Applotment records, but I had not found many that pertained to the family name that I am working on in this matter. However, the records were available online and I spent the morning going through the online records. The advantage of the online records is that I could filter for my surname and went through the records for the whole country. I also looked at a few other records but I didn’t find very much. I decided to come back to the hotel to deposit my research and perhaps go out again to do a bit of sightseeing. However, I am currently falling asleep while typing this. I am going to crash for a bit. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer than an hour.

Tomorrow, we leave Dublin.

By the way, I notice that there is a reader from Ireland. I must say that I am enjoying being here.

Day Four – Field Trip, April 2016

It was nice to get to bed early last night. I think that I was asleep within 30 minutes. It could have been a bit longer than that. However, I did wake up a couple of times during the night and the second time I couldn’t get back to sleep. When this happens, I either work on my computer or I read until I can sleep. Last night I read.

The alarm went off early this morning. We both wanted to know how things were going to go and this morning was a good trial. Tomorrow, we will be sleeping in a bit more.

Breakfast was excellent. Our trip includes all of our breakfasts and about half of our dinners. We are to look after the remaining dinners and all of our lunches. It gives us a chance to be able to look for the local pubs and try the food there. There is one across the street from our hotel and the food there is good and is not expensive.

Shirley shared the breakfast table with us. I’m not sure what Shirley or my brother had but I had eggs over easy with back bacon, mushrooms, dark pudding, white pudding, fruit with yogurt, and a slice of toast.

Shirley has been working on her family history for quite a while and kind of took me under her wing today. She has been to Dublin before. We decided that we would go to the National Archives of Ireland today. I had printed off the family group sheets for only the families that immigrated to Canada from Ireland. I had finally come up with a good format that gives enough information to help the expert be able to guide me in the right direction.

We were on our way by 9:00 am. We used the Hop On, Hop Off bus pass to get the most of the way there and then walked the last 15 minutes. I still had to get my reader’s ticket and then we could get started. Shirley talked with her first and then I had my chance.

A friend of mine in the Pembroke area had asked me to find out where she could get the information for a marriage that she was looking for. That was sorted out first and I now have the information to pass onto her.

I then asked about how to find records for John Robert and Margaret. According to the information that I have, they were married in 1822 but the catch is that they were Methodist. I was given a set of documents to order and examine while the expert helped others. I was able to use my camera and have a copy to be able to refer to when I get back home. We also made the decision that I would wait until we’re in Belfast before trying to get more information on that line.

Once I finished with those records, I was able to speak with the specialist again. We discussed another branch of the family which had a very popular name. His wife, however, had a name that was not so popular. After some discussion, we decided to leave that branch alone for a while until I was able to check out a couple of things.

We then discussed John. John had left Ireland in 1820 and, about 1825, was able to purchase some land. He married a French Canadian girl a year or two later. His surname is not very popular here as well as his mother’s maiden name. The expert tried a couple of websites but couldn’t find very much and then steered me in the direction of the Tithe Applotment books and Griffiths’ Evaluation. I was then put to work, but I was able to photograph all the records that pertained to this particular search. I now have to make some digital adjustments to the records so that they can be read. With this, I may be able to find information more readily. By the time I finished pulling together this information, it was almost 5:00 pm. Shirley was finished what she was doing sometime between 3:00 and 4:00. She kept herself busy until I was ready to go and we made it out the door by two minutes to 5 o’clock. They close at 5:00 p.m.

We decided to take the Hop On, Hop Off as far as we could, preferably as close to the hotel that we could get. At about the nineteenth stop, the driver announced that we would be leaving the bus at the twenty-second stop. We were to find our own way back, either walking or using the city bus system. He told us what bus we would have to take. Because it was rush hour, we opted to take a taxi so that we would not have to deal with a crowded bus and be able to travel faster. We made a good choice. We were back to the hotel by 6:00 p.m.

My brother had done other things during the day and was not back from his adventures yet. Shirley and I both needed to eat so we went to the pub across the street from the hotel. We had an enjoyable time in each other’s company and eat some good food which was followed by an evening of getting ready for the next day and relaxing.