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NOLAN FAMILY REPORT1. Nolan Family Name2. Sources Consulted 3. Daniel Nolan 4. Irish History Timeline 5. Ireland in the 18th to 20th century < < < Back to research page A sample comprehensive report (some names have been changed to protect identity.) 2. Sources consultedThe principal sources used for this genealogical search fall under the following headings.
1. Civil records.All births deaths and marriages in Ireland have been registered with the state since 1864. In the case of births the information required to be registered was the name of the child/children, date of birth, name, surname and dwelling place of the father, and the name, maiden name and dwelling place of the mother. Before this date the registration of births, marriages and deaths was sporadic and dependent on the parish.In the case of marriages, any person whose marriage was to be celebrated by a Catholic priest was required to have the clergyman fill out a certificate with the following information. The date of the marriage, the names and surnames of the people involved, their ages, rank, profession and/or occupation, name and surname of their parents and the rank and/or occupation of the fathers of each of the parties. Before Sate registration in 1864 all registrations were kept in local parishes, sometimes in bad conditions. Because of this many of the records have been lost through fire, water damage, rodent damage etc. Microfilm copies - up to the year 1880 - which includes most of the surviving Catholic parish registers, are in the National Library and it is here that we consulted the parish registers for records of the Nolan family. One problem with birth and marriage registration is that a significant number of registrations simply did not happen. This happened, in particular, during the more turbulent periods in Irish history, such as the Great Famine 1845-1848. In some cases a birth with be registered later. For example some one born in 1850 and not registered could be found to be registered in 1900, if it was the case that they later needed a birth certificate.
2. Census Records.Full government censuses were taken for the whole of the island in 1821 and every ten years after that until 1911. The first four 1821-1851 were largely destroyed in the fire in the Public Record Office in Dublin during the Irish Civil War, 1922. Those for 1861 and 1871 had been earlier destroyed on Government orders. This means that the only comprehensive census returns for the whole island are 1901 and 1911. Although these returns are very late the information they give is still illuminating. The 1901 records gives the name of all persons in the household, relationship to the head of the house, religion, literacy, occupation, age, martial status, county of birth etc.The most useful information given in the 1901 census is age. This has to treated with caution as very few of the ages given in the 1901 census matches that in the 1911 census - most people seems to have aged more than ten years!!! However, a person born in the 1840's could conceivably still be alive for the 1901 census, and is interesting to see if families remained in the same area throughout this period of time. The census returns are also useful for cross-checking. Where a name, like Nolan, is very common it is impossible to be sure for the parish records whether a particular family is the relevant one - especially are Christian names were also similar. In such cases a check of the 1901, 1911 census returns for a family can provide useful circumstantial evidence. Because of the dearth of census information before 1901 we have to consult with 'census substitutes' to try and fill in any gaps. In each county there are some records, which have to be consulted, and which, sometimes, help fill in the gaps in the civil and census records. These include land deeds, wills, gravestone inscriptions (those which have been complied on database) local journals, local directories, estate records, tithe book, etc. While these records can sometimes fill the gaps in family records they are only really useful if the relevant family were in a particular trade or profession, owned land or were clergymen. Unfortunately the vast majority of Irish families, in particular, Irish Catholic families, were either tenant farmers or landless labourers who would not feature in these records. 3. Land Records.These consist of two very important census substitutes. These are the Tithe Applotment Books (1824-1838) and the Primary Valuation of Ireland (commonly called Griffith's Valuation) of 1848-1864. Everyone in Ireland had to pay tithes or dues to the Established Church, even if they were not members of this Church. In 1823 the government decided to formalise the situation and conducted a valuation of the entire country, parish by parish, to determine how much would be paid by each landowner.There are exemptions from the Tithe Applotment, so it is not a comprehensive list of the entire country, and the genealogical information contained therein is quite basic, consisting as it does of the townland name, the landowner's name, the amount of land owned and the monies owed in tithes. The value of the Applotment books lies in the fact, that for some parishes where records do not begin until after 1850, they are the only early records. In order to produce the information necessary for local taxation, the Tenement Act, 1842 provided for a uniform valuation of all property in Ireland. The man appointed as Commissioner of Valuation was Richard Griffith and the results of his survey, The Primary Valuation of Ireland (commonly called Griffith's Valuation) were published between 1848 and 1864. The Valuation is arranged by county, barony, poor law union, civil parish and townland and lists every landholder and every householder in Ireland. All surnames in the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith's Valuation were indexed in the 1960's. This index is a useful starting point is a family or name search, especially where the name is quite common. 4. Valuation RecordsThe Valuation Office has two further related sets of records, which help fill in the gaps left by the destruction of the census returns. The first of these are notebooks, called 'field books,' record information on the household valued. These notebooks are valuable in determining any changes in occupation on the land between the initial survey (Griffith's Valuation) and the published results, for instance, if a family emigrated in the years immediately before publication, since they pre-date the final publication itself by several years.The second set of useful records are the ' Cancelled Land Books' and the 'Current Land Books', which give details of all changes in the holdings, from the Primary/Griffith's Valuation up to the present day. Any variation in the status of the holding, the names of the occupier or lessor are given in revisions every few years. The Books can be very useful in pinpointing a possible date of death or emigration, or in identifying a living relative.
5. Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints Records.The Mormons have been compiling the lists of all the extant parish registers in Ireland. A copy of their records in on file in the National Library of Ireland. These consist of all lists of births, deaths, and marriages in all counties, which they have transcribed to their records. Volunteers transcribed these records, not trained researchers, so these records are used only as a comparison point or staring point. If an entry appears in the Mormon lists it needs to be double-checked in the actual parish register. If an entry does not appear, it does not mean that there is no record in the parish records. These records, sometimes, do help in streamlining the number of parish records that need to be looked at.6. Emigration/Shipping/Transportation ListsIreland, until recently, was a country that lost a significant portion of its population to emigration each year. This was especially true in the mid to late 19th century when estimates of 2 to 4 million Irish men, women, and children left for new lives in the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, etc. Before the Great Famine of 1845-1858 it is estimated that there were 8 million people on the island, to-day there are 3.5 million people.The pre-famine trickle of emigration became a deluge after the Famine. It is estimated that the Famine killed about 1 million people and another 1 million emigrated during those awful years. From then on the country was depopulated as people left in droves. It is estimated that there are 40 million Americans of Irish descent alone. Emigration and Shipping lists are one way of finding out who left the country, by what port, on what ship and when. Unfortunately, there was no regulation of shipping. Masters of ships were not bound by law to keep lists of their passengers and many of these ships were the infamous 'coffin ships', into which were crowded uncounted numbers of poor starving wretches, fleeing starvation. So the lists we have for emigration and ships are patchy and fragmentary, but as with other records worth having a look at. Transportation from Ireland to Australia, whether as a free settler or convict, lasted from 1791 to 1853. The only mass transportation after this was the 63 Fenians sent to Western Australia in 1868 aboard the last convict ship from England to Australia. The sources that I used here included Prisoner Petitions and Cases (1788-1836), State Prisoners Petitions, Transportation Registers from 1836 and Free Settler Papers.
7. Other Sources.a. Commercial and Social Directories. Irish directories are an excellent source of genealogical information, particularly for the members of trades, profession and merchant classes, the clergy, landowners and the gentry. The only classes excluded from directories are the small tenant farmers, land-less labourers and servants. For Kerry the important directories are for the years:
c. Newspapers The types of genealogical information that one can find in newspapers, especially local newspapers, included marriage announcements and obituaries, elopements, business announcements, bankruptcies, and reports from trials. Kerry has several excellent newspaper sources, like the Kerry Evening Post (1828-1864). When doing genealogical research in Ireland one finds that there are many gaps in the records. Many of the civil records were destroyed in the fire in the Public Record Office in 1922. Many of the parish registers have been destroyed through neglect. However, with the existing sources one can try to fill in the gaps and establish what is left in the records of a relevant family. During the research on the Nolan family we used all of the above sources. |
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