05.08.2016
Online Launch of The List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers: An Invaluable Tool for Genealogists
Those interested in genealogy and history will welcome a new joint initiative between the Irish Genealogical Research Society and the Church of Ireland’s Representative Church Body Library. The List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers: an online colour–coded resource featuring live links to other relevant online resources was officially re–launched at a packed reception in St Audoen’s Parish Church in Dublin on Wednesday evening (August 3) by the Director of the National Archives, John McDonough.
The list accounts for all Church of Ireland parochial registers of baptism, marriage and burial – noting what survives, the dates covered, and where they are located. Where registers were destroyed in the burning of the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) during the Irish Civil War in 1922, the list records details about abstracts, transcripts and where they are held. In producing this new resource, the RCB Library has collaborated with the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS).
The re–launch (the original hand list having been compiled by Margaret Griffith, Deputy Keeper at PROI) highlighted the added value of technology as well as the importance of collaboration, John McDonough stated. He commended those in the Church of Ireland and IGRS “who had worked together to provide such an accessible and easy–to–use resource which will undoubtedly be useful for researchers”.
He added that the continued digitisation of Church of Ireland records would ensure their long term preservation and urged continued support for the Church of Ireland “to gather together more registers and other parochial records to its custody, and its endeavours to make their content more widely accessible” and looked forward to many more ‘re–launches’.
Dr Susan Hood, Librarian and Archivist of the RCB Library, explained that the Church of Ireland Registers are the most widely used on the island of Ireland and paid tribute to the clergy who had kept them in good condition over the centuries.
She highlighted the original list and the work of Margaret Griffith, who in the 1950s used extant parochial returns (dating from the 1870s) to compile a hand list of Church of Ireland parish registers known to exist in 1922. In the ensuing decades the list was heavily annotated by PROI staff with notes about abstracts, transcripts and locations of microfilms. From 1984 onwards, when the RCB Library was designated as the official place of deposit for Church of Ireland registers in the Republic of Ireland, the updating of the list was carried out by Library staff in conjunction with the National Archives and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland.
Dr Hood also paid tribute to Claire Santry a volunteer member of the IGRS who assisted with the reformatting of the list and created the hyperlinks to material which is already online. “So we now have a one stop search tool that links easily to online information which tells you where the Church of Ireland registers are, what survives and where it is available,” she commented.
The chairperson of the IGRS, Steven Smyrl, described the burning of the records in the PROI in 1922 as catastrophic but suggested that it “makes us better genealogists” because tracing ancestry is not straightforward. The IGRS was founded in the wake of the fire – the world’s first society dedicated to researching Irish genealogy – and this year celebrates its 80th anniversary. He praised Claire Santry for grasping that there was so much online of relevance to the Church of Ireland records that could be interpolated into Margaret Griffith’s list.
“Parish registers are a vital tool to genealogists and the loss of so many in 1922 has been an ever–present handicap. This new online resource, highlighting the existence of so many surviving registers, along with abstracts and copies of those that do not, will prove invaluable. Its launch today is a terrific way to mark the IGRS’ 80th anniversary,” he stated.
The new online version of the list interpolates all previous work into an accessible, colour–coded resource. Additionally, it now includes live links to other websites holding indexes, transcripts and scanned images of parish registers. Ultimately the list will further link to the RCB Library’s detailed in–house hand lists of the collections of parochial records – including the registers but also the wide variety of other records such as vestry minute books, preachers’ books, accounts and magazines.
The re–launched List of Church of Ireland Registers can be found at https://beta.ireland.anglican.org/news/6518/a-colourcoded-resource-of-what. It is also the subject of this month’s RCB Library Archive of the Month which can be viewed at: www.ireland.anglican.org/library/archive
Photo captions:
Top – Chairperson of the IGRS, Steven Smyrl, Director of the National Archives, John McDonough and Librarian and Archivist at the RCB Library, Dr Susan Hood.
Middle – The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke and Dr Susan Hood before the launch.
Bottom – A great crowd attended the launch of the online List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers in St Audoen’s Church, Dublin.
For more photos see Dublin and Glendalough’s Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/DublinandGlendalough/posts/1063786063657437