Directory of Irish Genealogy
Internet Edition 2001
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Guide to Genealogical Office | Index of Irish Wills
Guide to the Genealogical Office Dublin, no Editor's name given, Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin 1998, 282 pages, IR£9.99.
When news of this publication was first received, one was encouraged by the possibility that the Irish Manuscripts Commission was taking a closer interest in genealogy, and that a much needed up to date guide to the Genealogical Office might now be available. Alas, on examining the volume under review, it was found to be one of the poorest productions ever issued by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, comprising a scissors and paste compilation of previously published articles. Two of these articles are extremely useful and well known to users (or attempted users) of the Genealogical Office, namely, John Barry's 1949 'Guide to the Records of the Genealogical Office', which incorporates a commentary on heraldry in Ireland and a history of the Office, and P B Eustace's 1970 'Index of Will Abstracts in the Genealogical Office'. The third element is a much more basic production, being an almost verbatim rehash of John Grenham's listing of Genealogical Office records from the first edition of his Tracing Your Irish Ancestors. The difference in scholarly standards can be seen by contrasting Grenham's article, which contains not a single footnote, with Barry's substantial and fully referenced text. It is not the case that scholars are unavailable to help prepare a proper guide to the records of the Genealogical Office, it is just that little effort appears to have been made to involve them. We are also informed that some kind of dispute attended the publication of the Guide, in which context it may be significant that neither the current Chief Herald or any member of the Genealogical Office staff are mentioned by name therein.
Notwithstanding the Guide's limitations, we must make use of it in order to negotiate entry to the hitherto jealously guarded Genealogical Office archive. Barry's narrative describes and analyses the principal classes of records of the Genealogical Office, which of course are in the main the records of its predecessor, the Office of Arms. The most important records include Visitations, Grants and Confirmations of Arms, Funeral Entries, Lords Entries, Registered Pedigrees, various administrative records, armorials, calendars and indexes, and a range of miscellaneous records, the most important of which are abstracts and copies of documents no longer surviving. Reference to Grenham's bare listing of manuscripts should then identify the particular number of a manuscript which one seeks to consult. Hayes's Manuscript Sources is also an important research aid for Genealogical Office material, while Virginia W McAnlis's recently published Consolidated Index to the Records of the Genealogical Office (4 volumes, Issaquah, Washington, 1994-97) is particularly useful for identifying records relating to particular families.
The Genealogical Office's policy on access to its manuscripts has long been unsatisfactory (even Grenham once conceded that it was a 'somewhat vexed' question), but since reforms instituted by Director/Chief Herald Pat Donlon from 1995, the situation has improved. While there is still a tendency to refer applicants to microfilm copies of Genealogical Office manuscripts in the National Library of Ireland, which are sometimes semi-legible or illegible, those with bona fide research requirements should be able to secure permission from the Chief Herald or his Deputy to access original manuscripts via the Library's Manuscripts Reading Room at 2 Kildare Street, Dublin. However, as the writer has demonstrated in his accounts of the Chiefs Scandal elsewhere on this website, research in Genealogical Office manuscripts requires persistence and determination, and we reiterate our view that these records should be made properly accessible by integrating them fully into the holdings of the National Library, while still of course treating them as a distinct class. Finally, we take the opportunity to recommend to the Chief Herald and the Irish Manuscripts Commission that they should consider a programme of publication of important but little-known Genealogical Office manuscripts, such as the Visitations or O'Ferral's Linea Antiqua.
Eneclann, Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858: Records in the National Archives of Ireland, CD-ROM, [Dublin 2000], IR£36.30/E46.09 for EU residents, US$39.95 for non-EU residents, plus p & p; order on-line at http://www.eneclann.tcd.ie/cd1.htm.
Eneclann is a relatively new historical and genealogical research company based in Trinity College Dublin, and it has now expanded into the area of electronic publication with the production of the index under review. As most researchers know, wills suffered terribly in the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922, and locating surviving originals, copies and abstracts is difficult and time-consuming, so that the present publication is a very welcome research aid. This index to wills in the National Archives of Ireland (successor to the Public Record Office of Ireland) contains over 70,000 individual records with over 100,000 names and over 10,000 surnames and variants, making it quite a substantial database. While 90% of the records indexed are testamentary, that is, relating to wills, administrations and probates, about 10% relate to marriage licence grants and bonds and some other miscellaneous records. It should be noted that this is not a complete index to wills in the National Archives, but is rather a partial master index drawn from the following catalogues: Testamentary, Charitable Donations and Bequests, Crosslé, Jennings and Thrift Abstracts, and Inland Revenue Registers of Wills and Adminstrations 1828-39. Not included therefore are the very substantial Betham Abstracts, as well as the post-1858 Calendars of Wills and Administrations, which the publishers indicate will be covered by future publications. The National Archives has not produced a statutory report for nearly forty years, and its cataloguing and indexing is notoriouly minimal due primarily to lack of resources. Private enterprise clearly can help to fill this information gap, and Eneclann might also consider the pressing need to compile a master index of the National Archives pre-1858 Indexes to Prerogative and Diocesan Wills, Administrations and Marriage Licences, all of which still have to be searched manually.
Any errors and omissions in the National Archives catalogues may be replicated in Eneclann's index, and indeed a certain error rate on the part of the data compilers is probably also unavoidable. Limited sample checks by the reviewer have not so far uncovered any major discrepancies, and it remains to be seen if other users encounter some. The database is searched via one's web browser, operating off-line, and three search options are provided, namely, standard, expert (using qualifiers) and soundex (similar sounding variants). There is also a facility to order copies of the indexed documents from the National Archives via Eneclann, which will be of particular value to those living abroad. As might be expected of a firm operating in an academic environment, the overall standard of presentation of the index is high. However, references and a bibliography are surprisingly absent, and we would be particularly interested in learning the source of the assertion in the Introduction that use of the Gaelic prefixes Ó and Mac 'remained technically illegal until the 1890s'. More stress might have been placed on the fact that wills are of genealogical relevance only to wealthier families in general, so that by the middle of the nineteenth century for example, only about 3% of those who died left wills. That said, Eneclann's index represents good value for money and is further evidence of the utility of computerisation in genealogical research.