Researching Armagh Ancestors: A Practical Guide for the Family and Local Historian: 1 (County Guides for the Family and Local Historian) - Softcover

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Armagh the smallest county in Northern Ireland, has a rich, colourfuland even tempestuous history. War, famine and emigration overthe last four centuries have all contributed to forming the distinctivecharacter of its people.The constant struggle between Planter and Gael that has characterised thecounty since the Plantation in the early 17th century may be seen in, forexample, the almost equal division of the most popular surnames. Thecounty town, the city of Armagh, is the ecclesiastical capital of both theCatholic and Protestant religions on the island. By the end of the 18thcentury the county became one of the most prosperous and the mostdensely populated in Ireland.Its turbulent history has taken its toll on the evidence that remains. Manyrecords were lost, including those in the destruction of the Public RecordOffice in Dublin in 1922; much has, however, survived to aid the dedicatedfamily or local historian and is accessible in the detailed cataloguesand user-friendly searching aids in the Public Record Office of NorthernIreland. Ian Maxwell writes both as an historian and an archivist eager toencourage researchers to use the fullest range of sources available.An exceptional feature of this book are the reference appendices. Theseinclude a breakdown of administrative divisions listing some 1,400 townlandsand also unofficial placenames which disappeared from official useafter the standardisation of placenames in the 1830s. Also provided foreach townland are the civil parish, barony and poor law union plus thevital district electoral division details that greatly facilitates the researcherusing sources such as census returns and property valuation records. Otherappendices provide crucial archival references to tithe and valuationrecords and civil and Catholic parish maps are included. Such referenceappendices will be a feature of further books in this series of county guidesfor the family and local historian.

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