Sources for Irish Family History
Sources for Irish Family History; edited by James G. Ryan; 180 pp; Paperback;; Published: 2001; ISBN: 9780953997428; Illustrated; Item # FLP012
A guide to books, monographs and periodical papers on Irish families. The references cited are mainly accounts of particular family lines and vary from fond and emotional accounts of families and their ancestral homes to dispassionate, well-researched and fully documented family studies and pedigrees. The greater value of the material in these references is to put some human dimension to the barren facts that may be obtained from the usual range of records. No church or civil record will inform us that our ancestors were wonderful singers or dancers; or of the details of their travels or their occupation; nor whether their recorded marriages were the culminations of great romances, or of family arrangements. Such information can, however, be occasionally found in the memoirs & letters detailed in the articles and books listed here.
Reviews
"The sources are not your usual ones, so they provide new avenues to research. ...... The book contains good source information which should not be overlooked, as it gives both name and place and can be followed, even if your family name is not the one referenced, because of the county leads. Not your usual references, so there is no duplication." - St. Louis Genealogical Society Quarterly
"Anyone who is engaged in Irish genealogy will want to check this book for their family names" - NY Genealogical & Biographic Record
"Sources for Irish family History is first and foremost a work of reference and, as such, it succeeds very well. A piece of advice often given to family historians is to try to establish whether there already exists published information on the families they are interested in. If your ancestors lived in Ireland , this could be the first place to look for such a reference" - Yorkshire Family Historian
".. the main part of the book is a listing by surname of books and papers about specific Irish families. If you have Irish ancestors this book may or may not have an entry for your family; but if it does it will probably lead you to far more about the family than mere dates for birth/baptism, marriage and death/burial. Even if your own family is not mentioned other families from the same place may be. Because the compiler of this book has endeavoured to include sources which are not easily available, any researcher with Irish ancestors should consult it, to learn if there are relevant books or articles which it would be worthwhile tracking down" - Cambridgeshire FHS Journal
"The title of this paperback pretty well sums it all up. One caveat is that the extent of the coverage of each family varies from a few lines to several volumes, which is not indicated here. Names are alphabetical, and there is a welcome feature if you are as frustrated by "Mc" or "O" names in indices as I am: such names are listed under the first letter of the letter following the prefix (but watch for variations); example: O'Hagarty is among names starting with the letter H. Also here is a place name index listing many of the family names associated with that location, such as: Belfast: Bell, McCable, Ferguson, Lindsay, Magee, Mayne, and McRory. This should be a very useful source for Irish genealogical data" - The Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, 68:96.