Author name: Ruth Blair

“Bullet Holes in the Manuscript” – the Destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922

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RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) is the National Public Service Broadcaster for Ireland. On RTÉ Radio One there is a program called “Documentary on One”. They cover many and varied topics. I download them through ITunes and listen to them on my IPod. You can also listen to them online or download them from their website.

Under the topic history was one very interesting program. It is called “Bullet Holes in the Manuscript” and was broadcast in 1991. It is a radio documentary that focuses on the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922. It is very interesting to find out some of the stories behind the event.

I remember my Grandfather telling me that he was 11 years old when the fire started and he saw bits of scorched paper floating down into his back garden. The family lived in Clonskeagh a suburb of Dublin. He said it was quite a sight and although my Grandfather did not know it then he was watching some of his nations printed history float down into his garden.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Ruth’s Recommendations

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On a regular basis I am going to share with you some of my favourite blog posts from other bloggers. They may not all be genealogy related but have some connection to the process of researching your family history.

Amy Coffin of “The We Tree Genealogy Blog” has a post called “If Genealogists Ran Hollywood.” It is a humourous look at the premise of what would happen if the theme of family history had an influence on the movie industry. I would really like to see “Genealogy Conference: The Movie.”

Marian Pierre-Louis of “Marian’s Roots and Rambles” takes a look at “The Top 3 Changes in Genealogy.” It is a thought provoking post that covers Awareness and Visibility, Education and Outreach, and Technology which includes Blogging, Facebook and Digitization.

George Angus of “Tumblemoose,” a blog about the writing process, has a post called “50 Books That Will Make You A Better Writer – Repost.” This is a good reference for those family historians who want to write, are getting ready to write or are in the process of writing their family history. He breaks the list down into Classics, Composition and Rhetoric, Genre and Medium, Literary Criticism, Reading, and Analysis and Notable Writers.

The National Library of Ireland have launched a new blog aptly name “NLI Blog.” Fiona Ross, Director of the NLI wrote the first posting. She weaves the past history of the library into the present and beyond into the future. The doors of the library opened for the first time in August 1877. They are celebrating 121 years of continuous service next month. There is a quote, at the end of the post, from a speech given by Dr. Edward Dowden on the opening day which is very poignant.

The blog “Planting the Seeds Genealogy as a Profession” by Michael Hait had an interesting post about the top five books on his bookshelf. He links to “Marian’s Roots and Rambles” and “Greta’s Genealogy Blog” who posted their own lists.

Chris Paton’s blog “Walking in Eternity” has a very heartfelt tribute entitled “Missionary man – David Macdonald Paton” telling the story of his experiences in China as a missionary for the Church Missionary Society.

“The Family Recorder” blog by Audrey Collins has an interesting post entitled “Work in the workhouse” where she looks at an advertisement she recently found for a firewood bundling machine.

Happy Reading!

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Scottish Post Office Directories – Have you used them yet?

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The National Library for any country is a wonderful resource for a family history researcher. Part of their mandate is to preserve their countries history through books and now quite a few are putting their digital collections online. The really wonderful thing is that these collections are usually free to access.

The National Library of Scotland has put their Post Office Directories online. The time period covered is 1773-1911 and 28 towns and counties in Scotland are represented. There are 694 directories in the digital collection.

Right now you can search the collection on the National Library of Scotland’s website but there are plans to have a website dedicated to the collection up and running some time this summer.

The main parts of the directory are the street and trade section and a section that alphabetically lists residents by their name. In the alphabetical listing you sometimes find their address and occupation.

The directory can create a picture in time of the town it is covering. You can find information on what can be found in the city including lists of banks, churches and clergy, conveyances, education, insurance, law, medicine, post offices and lists of the people involved in the parliamentary process.

The towns and counties covered in the collection are: Aberdeen (88), Airdrie (1), Angus and Mearns (2), Ayrshire (32), Bute (19), Clackmannan (1), Dalkeith (8), Dumfries (1), Dundee (52), Edinburgh (128), Forfar (26), Glasgow (115), Greenock (65), Hamilton (2), Helensburgh (2), Inverness (15), Kilmarnock (3), Morayshire (5), Motherwell (1), Musselburgh (1), North-East Scotland (1), Perth (29), Peterhead (1), Portobello (3), Renfrewshire (61), Scotland (18), Stirling (12), West coast Scotland (2).

The numbers in the brackets are the number of directories for each place. Edinburgh and Glasgow have the most. The one for Airdrie is for 1896 and Peterhead is for 1853.

You can download a PDF or you can view the book online. The online link takes you to the Internet Archive website where the images are held.

The earliest one for Glasgow is John Tait’s directory for the City of Glasgow 15 May 1783 to 15 May 1784. The alphabetical name index is by first letter only. The list for each letter is not alphabetical.

I went in and checked the Glasgow directory for 1801. This is an alphabetical list for last name but the first names are not alphabetical. Sometimes you can not read the last entry on a page so try making the image smaller. At the end of the names index there is a list of “Names omitted in their proper place” and while not all directories might have this it is a good idea to check if they do. I did not find the ancestors I was looking for in this directory.

They were found in the 1825 directory. Walter Campbell is a smith and farrier at 322 Gallowgate in Glasgow. In this directory I did a search for my Waddell family and the search said there were no results. When I checked under the letter W there were 12 Waddell’s listed. Do not rely on the search function.

I just spent a wonderful afternoon going through the post office directories and found many interesting items relating to my Waddell family. The directories along with statistical accounts of Scotland can help you find more information about your family and how and where they lived.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved