Deirdre Lindsay and David Fitzpatrick (eds.)
(Irish Famine Network, TCD, £4.50)
Most records relevant to the Famine lack satisfactory published guides. The authors’ intention in publishing Records of the Irish Famine is to encourage local studies of the Famine and its effects. The volume is split into three sections sandwiched between an introduction and an appendix. The introduction is clear and helpful, explaining the aims of the publication and how it was put together, problems with its coverage and that of the records themselves. The authors suggest that Mitchell’s A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland is the best way to check the correlation between Roman Catholic and civil (or Church of Ireland) parishes. But the Atlas was compiled from the National Library’s Index of Surnames, with little original surveying by the author. The Index is not the most reliable guide, since there is no indication of how its charts were put together and what authorities were used. Parts of the work were only drafted once due to a withdrawal of funding. The best way to check correlation between the different types of parish is Lewis’s Topographical Directory of Ireland. It is near contemporary with the Famine (1837), based on Lewis’s original extensive research and widely available. The Parliamentary Gazetteer is also useful and even closer to the Famine period but is largely derivative from Lewis.
The first of the main sections deals with Poor Law records, the only comprehensive guide for any period published so far. It is very well put together, and explains the content of various classes of Poor Law Union records, as well as boundary changes at the time of the Famine. Two maps give readers an idea, at a glance, of what survives for any particular union. The authors’ claim that both workhouse registers and outdoor relief registers have alphabetical surname. While this is the case for a few unions, many, for example the massive series for South Dublin Union at the National Archives, do not .
The section on Grand Jury records is very welcome. Most of these records were destroyed in the Four Courts in 1922 but those still extant are listed here and their contents described. The section on Roman Catholic records is the only one in the volume which is not substantially original. It is largely based on the National Library of Ireland list of parishes whose records are available on microfilm there. There are three shortcomings of these records. First, not all extant registers have been filmed. In some cases whole parishes were missed, as is the case in parts of Dublin diocese. In other cases one or more volumes of a particular parish register were neglected, probably because they were missing or overlooked when microfilming was in progress. The authors have noted this fact and attempted to rectify the list but admit that this is necessarily partial. Second, the Roman Catholic parish system was much more flexible than the Church of Ireland’s. In the section on Poor Law records the editors detail the Unions set up during the period covered. The NLI list ignores similar problems in the case of new Roman Catholic parishes and the guide unfortunately follows suit. Third, the registers of chapels-of-ease are listed by the NLI under the name of the chapel. No attempt is made to differentiate them from parish chapels or to link them to the parish in which they were situated. Again the editors follow the NLI without noting the problem. However, as a printed version of part of the NLI list, slightly corrected in a number of details but not general form, it will still be very useful to researchers.
A useful addition to the section on Roman Catholic records would have been a list of extant Church of Ireland burial registers. Roman Catholics had the right to be buried in the civil (i.e. Church of Ireland) parish burial ground. It is not unknown to find records of Roman Catholics being buried there on the eve of disestablishment, especially in rural parishes. The deficiencies the editors note in Roman Catholic burial registers could well be made up in some areas by the use of Church of Ireland registers.
The volume concludes with an appendix listing nominal returns in the printed House of Commons papers. As many of these are difficult to identify from the available indexes this list should save researchers much time and make this material more widely available. There are places where the layout could be improved to make it easier to consult. This is particularly the case with the system of signification for counties whose records are in more than one repository or which are split between more than one diocese. The use of different combinations of asterisk and hash signs in such cases are very hard on the eye. Surely there is room enough for three letter codes to be used instead?
Despite minor faults this is an extremely useful volume and deserves a place on the shelves of anyone, academic, local historian or genealogist researching the period. Hopefully, it will fulfil its authors’ aims and assist historians in producing the detailed local studies necessary for a complete history of the Famine.
M. D. Evans