'Irish Roots' archive



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Irish Roots

October 31st, 2011


From Skibbereen Catholic baptismal register:
"[Nov. 23, 1827] Catherine a bastard reputed daughter of Rich'd Leonard, a soldier, and Mary Regan, wife of Tim Lordan late of New Bridge now living in Crookhaven. The mother of this infant is not only a public adultress [sic] but also connected with a gang of coiners or makers of false money. Sp[onsors:] John Glasson, Cate Sullivane. Rev'd P. Sheehy." (see http://tinyurl.com/l4256fh)

From St. Finbar's Catholic records, Cork city:
June 16 1804, [Baptised]: "Catherine [daughter of] Denis Kelly soldier and Ellen Ford; Sponsors Edward Kelly, a grey-headed swindler from Brandy Lane, and Mary McMullen." (see http://tinyurl.com/oze5ygo)

From Bantry Catholic baptisms:
"June 24 1835 , [Baptised]: John [son of] Rich'd Earl of Bantry and Cath. Sullivan, . Sp[onsors:] Mich'l Lenihan, Julia Bourk. (spurious)" (see http://tinyurl.com/klxwyvt)

From the 1911 census "Return of Lunatics and Idiots in Public Institutions and Private Lunatic Asylums" for Grangegorman :"W.W.", a 52-year-old painter from Dublin has been an inmate for 30 years. In the column headed "Ascertained or presumed cause of Insanity" is just one word: "grief". (see census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000097790/)

A priest in Skibbereen, livid with outrage, has outlined what could be the plot of a Victorian novel. In Cork city, the godfather has apparently avoided paying for a baptism in 1804. In Bantry, an illegitimate addition to a powerful local family is very discreetly noted. A 1911 mental hospital return hints at unbearable tragedy.

Apart from the drama embedded in each of these extracts, they have one other feature in common. They all come from images of the records that contain them, and they all fall outside the schemas used to transcribe those records. Without the images, in other words, they would be forever inaccessible. And this is only a minute sample of the richness of detail in the originals. Record images are not an optional frill. They are essential.

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