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From:
Subject: [OPS] Aran Islands
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 07:34:19 EDT


Dear All-
I think I'm here under false pretenses.
My one-place-study is the Aran Islands in Galway Bay,Ireland.I didn't realise
that this was a UK-only site.
However,19th century Ireland was under British rule ,and I have several
English and Scottish names in my records,so please can I stay?

Irish genealogy is quite different from English.(I do both,as I am a
volunteer at the
local LDS centre near High Wycombe,Bucks.)
If you are very lucky,you might trace a relative back to 1820,but that's
about it for most people of "peasant stock".Civil Registration didn't start
till 1864,compared with 1837 in England ,and because of religious
persecution, most Catholic parish registers also date from the second half of
the century - in Aran ,they begin 1872.
A great many of the Church of Ireland registers were destroyed in 1922,along
with most of the census records.
To compensate for this lack of material,the Irish Government opened the
surviving census records -1901 and 1911 - to the public.
There is also something called Griffith's Valuation,which we consider our
Bible.It's an 1855 rating of property throughout Ireland,and gives the name
of the head of household for each dwelling,for tax purposes,and was updated
periodically until 1930s.

The Aran Islands are very special,historically and geographically.In the 19th
century they were remote,bleak and isolated,and unbelievably poor.There was
no soil or trees, just granite slabs,sand and seaweed.The islanders paid
exorbitant rent to absentee landlords -supporting themselves with potatoes
and fishing.They were,and still are, Gaelic speaking.There are numerous
historical remains,such as Dun Angus, an immense Iron age fort,and 1st-8th
century churches and monasteries,all in ruins.Elizabeth I set up a fort here
to watch for the Spanish Armada,and apparently anthropological studies have
shown that the blood groups of the islanders more closely resemble London
than anywhere else in Ireland!!

My mother was born on Aran,hence my initial interest.
Also ,islands are remarkably self-contained,and there is less movement than
on the mainland.Fortunately for me, the 1821 census survived on Aran -one of
only a handful throughout Ireland.So I have 3 census,Griffiths,Parish
records,Civil registration records(I am extracting them year by year from the
Dublin records),Tithes and various land records.

Now,the downside!
Overall,there have been about 400 surnames on record on Aran,mainly
visitors,coastguards,constabulary officers,fishery and land agents.
The vast majority of the population share about a dozen surnames and the same
number of first names! Everyone is a :

Flaherty/Faherty/Conneely/Joyce/Hernon/Dirrane/Pole/McDonagh/Griffin.

Patrick/Michael /Martin/John/Bartly/McDara/Thomas/Colman

Bridget/Mary/Catherine/Barbara/Ellen/Honora/Margaret/Anne

Just perm any two of the names and I will give you a list a mile long.In any
given generation I will have 20 Martin Flahertys,and 20 Bridget Conneelys.At
least 5 of these marry each other.And name their children Martin and
Bridget,and the whole cycle begins again!

I deal primarily online with Americans searching for their Irish roots.In
most families,because of grinding poverty , and then the Potato famine,only
the oldest son remained on the islands,and the rest emigrated- usually to
Boston or New York.
They are searching for their gt,gt,grandfather -yes,you guessed it - Martin
Flaherty!!!!
And he married a Bridget - surely you have records?

It's exasperating,and stimulating,and very,very rewarding,when I finally can
say -That's YOUR Martin Flaherty!

Hope I haven't gone on too long,and started to bore you,but genealogy takes
over,as I'm sure you all know or you wouldn't be on this site.
What I really hope to learn from you,is how to organise all this data on to a
computer.I'm still working off paper.I am transcribing records onto Excel,
but they are still just lists. There must be a better database to link the
info.together.I am not very computer literate,but I want to be able to enter
a name from the census,and be given his birth,marriage,and details of his
children and siblings,derived from all the other sources.
I have been told to use Access,and not to use Access.Has anyone done anything
similar ,and can offer advice?
Look forward to hearing from you
Regards,Cathy

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