Pure Cork by Michael Lenihan

The name Pure Cork says it all and Michael’s collection of images of Cork memorabilia representing over two hundred years, is incredible, unique and must have taken many years to collect. The book is listed at Eason’s website.

Cork Deanery Catholic Church Records

Cork County Examiner supplement – March 21 2006

Cork Ancestral Project

It is now seventeen years since the Cork Ancestral Project, funded by Fas, started their digitization work and none of it is on the internet. Their work has been partly superceded by a digitization project which digitized many Cork Catholic parishes within a short time frame from micofilm and which put them on the www.irishgenealogy.ie website. This work which is hosted by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport is ongoing and more records are promsied to be uploaded to the internet this year. I quote “These Church records were computerised with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport and through the work of the Dublin Heritage Group and Kerry Genealogical Research Centre.”

To date, there is only a hard copy of the index of St. Mary’s and St. Anne’s (North Parish), Cork City, available in the Cork County Library. It is not online and no-one seems to know when it will be made available on the internet.

Here is the email address of Mr Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: JimmyDeenihan@tcs.gov.ie

I believe passionately in the use of yDNA in tracing paternal lines. Only men have yDNA so a man has to represent a family in a yDNA test. This is a disadvantage as sometimes there is no-one left in the male line to test. Leaving aside this obvious disadvantage, the advantages of using yDNA are many.  If your paper trail fizzles out, yDNA testing can help to find connections to others and help to find relatives. It can help to focus your attention on a particular location which may be useful in your genealogical research.

In a general sense, yDNA can help understand migration out of Africa (about 60,000 years ago) to all corners of the globe. The Genographic Project has focused on this area of human history and migration, exclusively. However, all yDNA testing involves learning more about our Deep Ancestry to a lessor or greater extent. As yDNA testing technology evolves, testing gets more and more able to work out the specifics of our paternal line.

DNA Research in Ireland

There is almost no media exposure for DNA testing in Ireland, even as part of population analysis. However, in the recent past, the Smurfit Institute of Genetics did produce some very interesting research papers which dealt with Irish yDNA.

There was a tv program on RTE calledBlood of the Irish and the DVD of this production can be purchased at http://www.bloodoftheirish.com/.

A landmark series for RTÉ One, Blood of the Irish explores the most fundamental questions about the Irish population; who were the first people to settle here and where did they come from? Why are the oldest Irish human remains less than 10,000 years old when just 100 kms away in Britain, human traces go back 700,000 years? Did the first Irish arrive overland on an ice bridge, or on a small fragile boat blown ashore by the winds of chance? The series combines cutting edge science, the latest archaeology and superb visuals to bring this enthralling topic to our screens for the first time.

There is to be a tv program called Blood of the Travellers on RTE on the 22nd may 2011.

The origin of Ireland’s Travelling people is a subject that has been debated for many years. Some say they are related to Romany gypsies or some other ethnic group that arrived here over the past 1000 years, others say they have been a community in Ireland long before the arrival of the Celts and subsequent invaders, while more say they are ‘settled Irish people’ who ‘took to the road’ during times of famine and eviction in the years since Oliver Cromwell.

Now for the first time this subject has been approached using the tools of DNA technology. Over the past year Olympian Francie Barrett has collected 40 Traveller DNA samples from every corner of Ireland. This DNA has been analysed by a team of scientists from The Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, The University of Edinburgh and Ethnoancestory.com to unlock the history of Ireland’s Travelling people.

What About Genetic Genealogy Tourism?

I have tried to raise the topic of DNA testing, in recent times, in the context of the Irish effort to “reach out” to Irish diaspora, but it falls on deaf ears. The Irish want to attract the Irish diaspora back to Ireland as “genealogical tourism” to boost the economy and there is a pilot scheme in East Galway which aims to get in touch with people abroad who know they come from the parishes in that area. See: http://www.irelandxo.org/

What about all those who don’t know which parish they come from? Recently, an American who is holidaying in Ireland was given my email address (by an acquaintance of mine who knows I promote the Ireland yDNA Project) to discuss DNA testing with me. This man is actually in Co. Galway and thinks his ancestors were from there but no-one can help him with his paper trail as his ancestors emigrated too early (1700s). Where is the help for people like this? I think the Irish government is missing a golden opportunity to help both the people still in Ireland and the people who emigrated.

Scenary in Ireland

There are nearly 4,000 people in the Ireland yDNA Project, which is run through Family Tree DNA , most of whom are from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. If more Irish men got involved, it would help their families reconnect with descendants of relatives who emigrated in hard times. Of course, it would help the Irish Diaspora find their Irish origins.

Overall, I see it as a win-win situation. No doubt, more of the diaspora would visit Ireland to see their relatives, their home townland, ancestral cottage or region where their ancestors lived.

Old headstones

Cork City’s Burial Places is available from the Planning and Development Directorate, City Hall. It is a useful guide to the history of burying places in Cork City but falls short of helping the genealogist.

Cork City’s Burial Places will enhance our knowledge of the past societies and individuals who developed the city and will allow for a more informative management of the burial grounds by those who are shaping our city today.

Cork City Council is committed to promoting and protecting the archaeological heritage of Cork City and is delighted to produce this interesting and worthwhile book. It was funded by the Urban and Village Renewal Scheme and the Heritage Council.

Recently, I was asked if I knew about a Coppinger tomb in St. Annes’s Shandon. This graveyard has undergone much damage and vandalism over the years as well as the removal of headstones to the side wall. I found the photograph I had taken in 1997, well before digitization, and realized how important the transcription is. The headstone (probably the slab covering a tomb) was barely legible in 1997 but in 2011, I am not sure it would be recognizable. It was lying flat on the gound with debris and dirt on it with the top right hand corner broken off. Here is the 1997 image:

Coppinger - Shandon Graveyard

Here is the transcription I did in 1997. The stone is not visible any longer but it is a pity I didn’t have the advantage of a digital camera in 1997!

This monument was ……
William Coppinger
where lyeth the body of his f…….
James Coppinger Esq.
who died the 27th April AD 1815
And his beloved wife Ellen Moylan
Whose body is deposited with those of
her infant Child
She died in the bloom of life the 18th day of June 1818
With the …………….possessed a mind of the Purest
And which……………….the most Becoming
………..to those ……………………whose loss will be great

It is be worth stating that it is said that there were about 40,000 burials in the graveyards (in two parts) surrounding the church and about three quarters (about 30,000) of these were Catholic. Most of these had no headstone but there are burial records in the keeping of the Church of Ireland. These have been digitized by the Cobh Genealogical Project.

See the images below of the church and the outer graveyard:

The oldest one at the bottom shows the multitude of headstones which were there, the next one shows these headstones along the wall and the long grass in the graveyard. More recently (as seen in April 2011), shown in the top photo, there is work being done by the Cork City Council, to make the graveyard a more welcoming place.

St. Anne's in 2011

St. Anne's, Shandon

St. Anne's Shandon in a postcard from 1900

Above 1900 postcard image courtesy of Michael Lenihan, from his collection.

Here is a link to some information on St. Anne’s, Shandon: Shandon Bells

Here is the “About US” from the Cork Past and Presetn website:

Cork Past and Present is an online service of Cork City Libraries, providing information on Cork’s history, culture, places, people, and events. The site focuses on Cork city and its surrounding areas, providing new textual material as well as digital images, including local photographs, drawings, maps, and advertisements. This continually expanding site, which began in 2004, has approximately 200 pages and about 300 images.

I want to emphasise the value of Familysearch.org for anyone doing Irish genealogical research. This website, set up by the Mormons continues to have new material added to it. It is all done in an understated fashion with no fanfare or official launches that I know of, anyway. Yet, anyone doing genealogical research online must have come across it.

As regards Ireland, the website serves a huge purpose and enables people to search for birth, marriage and death indexes from the start of civil records to 1958. Once you have found an index which might be correct, you can order a photocopy of this for €4 from the GRO in Roscommon.

The Familysearch.org website has miscellaneous Irish Parish records. For Irish who emigrated to other countries, Familysearch.org offers much material. There are many scanned in census forms etc. etc.

I should mention the official HSE Civil Registration website at Civil Registration Service which gives details of ordering certificates through its system. It is more expensive than the Mormon wesite at €11 which includes a search, retrieval and postage fee (which is €1 within Ireland, €2 for elsewhere). However, the service extends to present day records.

So, in 2011, we have ways of finding/ordering civil records online, the 1901 and 1911 Irish Censuses are online and free. There are other websites like Askaboutireland.ie where Griffith’s Valuation is available and free. The Askaboutireland.ie website states:

AskAboutIreland and the Cultural Heritage Project is an initiative of public libraries together with local museums and archives in the digitisation and online publication of the original, the unusual and the unique material from their local studies’ collections to create a national Internet resource for culture.

I should not forget the Irishgenealogy website which is trying to get as many church records online as possible. It is free.

I have heard (from the online message boards) and I can’t confirm this but the National Library of Ireland, holder of microfilm for the Catholic Church parish records may be planning to digitize all of its parish records.

I look forward to seeing more and more Irish records online.

Below are images of George Boole and family, courtesy of Kevin Boole.

George Boole and family

Kevin also let me know that in 2014, University College, Cork will have celebrations to commemorate the 200th anniversary of George Boole’s birth in 1815, and they will also mark the 150th anniversary of his death in 2014.
Here is a link to the collection of Boole papers in UCC.

[added 16th February 2011]

George Boole's former house

added 17th January 2011 (photo: Randy Jordan)

Petition to save George Boole’s house: Petition: sign here

I was appalled to learn on twitter via Eoin Lettice’s tweet (on 2st Oct 2010) with regard to the condition of George Boole’s house in Cork City. Eoin Lettice’s blog post on the condition of the house where George Boole, once lived in Cork City, says it all:
http://www.communicatescience.eu/2010/10/letting-booles-memory-collapse-doesnt.html

This neglect by the authorities of an 18th century building which once housed George Boole, inventor of Boolean Algebra, is shocking. At the moment, the University of Lincoln in George Boole’s home town in England is celebrating Boolefest (29th October – 6th November).

The Boolefest website states:

Help reclaim Lincoln’s famous son, the grandfather of all things digital, at this arts and sciences festival.

Performances, exhibitions and public lectures celebrating George Boole, Lincoln-born mathematician and father of binary logic.

The University of Linclon has a link to this YouTube video:
YOUTUBE VIDEO, George Boole.

The media is writing about the negleted house:

The Irish Examiner had an article on the 22nd October 2010.

The Cork Independent has picked up on the story in its 28th October 2010 edition.

The Irish Times 28thOct. 2010.

In Cork, we have the Boole Library at UCC, named after George Boole who worked in UCC for a period of time before his premature death in 1864.

UCC also has this webpage devoted to George Boole: The Greatness of George Boole by William Reville, University College, Cork. Their webpage states that the article on George Boole, first appeared in The Irish Times, May 20, 1996.

I quote:

A window, The Boole Window, was installed by public subscription in the Aula Maxima at UCC. Recently the new Boole Library and Boole Lecture Theatre complex at UCC were named in his honour. However, his most enduring legacy will be that whenever the subjects of Mathematics, Electronics, Logic, Information Theory, Cybernetics and Computer Science are taught, his name will be remembered for his beautiful, simple and universally useful theories.

George Boole was born in Lincoln in 1815. He died in Cork in 1864 and is buried in the churchyard of St. Michael’s Church of Ireland, Blackrock. His memory is part of our Cork heritage.

The link:https://beta.familysearch.org/
enables you to search through many different collections which are useful for family history research. These include the Irish Civil Records Index upto 1958 as well as some Irish church records. The website is described as “beta”, which means it is being tested. I use it frequently and with practice, it can be utilized to a high level of success. I advise using the “advanced search” which can be carefully manipulated to produce excellent results.

The slightly older: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start is described as a “pilot” website in the title and a “prototype” on the original website: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp.

I am not sure what is going on behind the scenes but I welcome the provision of these absolutely wonderful search facilities.

Along with the 1901, 1911 Census returns and the addition of some Irish church records to the web, Irish genealogy has become a lot easier. I am still waiting for more Catholic Church records to be added to the website:http://www.genealogy.ie. I am especially looking forward to seeing the Catholic records for St. Mary’s and St. Anne’s, Shandon added. These have been digitized by Fas and the Cork County Library.