Local History Tips

coffey87

Hi All

Want to start looking into the local history of my area and looking for some starter tips from people who have done it before, good websites, sources etc? Thanks

kildarejohn

Local library would be a good place to start, they will have copies of any books written about the area. Most County Councils have a heritage section on their website with often good info. Many of the sources mentioned in the Genealogy sub-forum are relevant to local history too, e.g. Griffiths Valuation on askaboutireland.ie.

magicbastarder

i'm sure you're aware of it, but the geohive maps are a great way to spend time looking back through the 6 inch and 25 inch maps.

Mick Tator

Adding to the above…

I’ve been writing on local history for years. The local library usually has a helpful person that can and often will be delighted to give you a ‘steer’ in the right direction. Some County Libraries have an excellent online presence – for e.g. Cork. Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, and they often cover other places/events.

Your sources depend on where, what and who you are writing about. I have found newspaper archives to be by far the best, generally, as the articles are professionally written and informative. The Irish Newspaper Archive has an offer currently. Using newspapers will give you 'hints' that can be followed up in other sources.

The lives of ordinary people are not recorded much, unless they were criminals or had a priest in the family. – e.g. Petty sessions records

Local people - usually the elderly ones - can be a good source but invariably have considerable bias and will swear as ‘fact’ stories that rarely bear even superficial scrutiny.

Landed estates records are great (when they exist).

The Duchas archive (Folklore Commission) also is informative but it is folklore tinged with fact, rather than the other way around.

I’ve found that the people most interested in what I’ve written on my area are people who have moved there, followed by descendants of those who emigrated from the area. Most of the locals have little interest and are not ‘big’ on reading. One or two are negative, “Who does he think he is, shur he’s not from here atall!”

The usual genealogical sites (free) are good – Familysearch, National Archives, Census, Wills (NAI), are useful.Nick Reddan’s page on the Reg. of Deeds can be helpful.

The list is huge ………Clare County Library has a great portal https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/library/local-studies/locstudi1.htm

https://landedestates.ie/ https://www.duchas.ie/en

coffey87

Thanks for all your help everyone, great tips to get me started!!