Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge!  It blossoms through the year! Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

LOCALLY AVAILABLE IRISH GENERATED SOURCES
Other sources, once only available in Dublin, such as the Tithe Applotment Books, together with the ancillary Tithe Defaulters listings, Griffith’s General Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland 1848-1864, and the Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536-1810, are available online or held in microform and CD versions. Two other resources beloved by researchers include the Catholic parish records which have been a means of making links we could not make previously and finally records created by The Devon Commission, 1843-5, which allows us to track down to the local level on the eve of the Great Famine. It could never be denied that visiting the National Library and National Archives in Ireland would permit access to an extensive range of supplementary documentation.

COMPREHENSIVE INDEXES & ESSENTIAL REFERENCE MATERIAL
Indexes, articles, and multi-volume series produced by committed researchers in other countries also complement the local collection. Among this group is the set of sixteen books comprising O’Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland, compiled by A.E. Casey and T.E.P. Dowling between 1952 and 1971. Further, as Volume 16, Casey organised a four-volume complementary series on North Cork by J.G. White entitled Historical and Topographical Notes, etc., on Buttevant, Castletownroche, Doneraile, Mallow and Places in their Vicinity which includes a comprehensive place and personal name index.

“Dunbrody” at New Ross, Wexford. Image by R. Edes.

It has been estimated that of the millions of Irish who left their homeland during the nineteenth century only fifteen percent came to Australia. This seemingly small proportion reputedly represented between twenty-five and thirty percent of all Australians at the time. Because family members travelled to other countries, especially England and the United States, often records created about Irish around the world can assist with our own personal endeavours.  Quite apart from the web facilities and its numerous links offered at the State Library of Queensland, conference papers, journal articles, books and indexes allow still more opportunities. M.D. Falley’s Irish and Scotch-Irish ancestral research produced as long ago as 1961-2 for an American audience, remains most pertinent. Information on the vast amount of filmed material and indexes produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints can be obtained through the website but several publications will assist, for example, their series of four volumes showing the location of churches in the four provinces. A more obscure source, Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania 1682-1750 by Albert C. Myers, gives their early history in Ireland to film users in Brisbane.  Discovering such pots of rainbow gold encourages permanent residence at the library.

SHERIDAN’S ADVICE IN ACTION

DO NOT FORGET TO CONSULT:  MAPS
Some areas in the library not always exploited to the full by searchers involve maps, newspapers, and the extensive photographic holdings. Within the John Oxley Library of the State Library of Queensland in its fully refurbished building on Southbank in the centre of Brisbane, is a dedicated area containing an extensive map collection housed in purpose-built shelving and cabinets. Of great interest are the estate maps of Brisbane which depict the opening of new suburbs and indicate early street names.  When these are used in conjunction with Post Office Directories, the likelihood of neighbours becoming relatives is highlighted.  As this State’s migrant population predominantly has come from multiple European countries, concentrated efforts have been made to obtain a wide variety of cartographic material encompassing the world over an extensive time period. As the result of a generous bequest the earliest series of Irish Ordnance Survey maps was obtained to augment the already diverse collection focussed on Ireland including townland outlines on microfiche and many atlases and gazetteers.

NEWSPAPER RESOURCES
The newspaper series, mainly held on microfilm, not only covers an extensive range of early and contemporary Queensland papers but is augmented by collections originating in the other States and in England and New York. For example, runs of four Queensland newspapers produced by the Roman Catholic Church starting as early as 1861 offer intriguing insights. Then, the Sydney editions of the nineteenth-century Freeman’s Journal provide a goldmine of data on Irish settlers while the London Times, held from 1785, regularly reported Irish local news. The New York Times, which is held from September 1851, also gives an overview of Irish activity. For fuller listings, reference material such as Joseph C. Hayes’, ‘Guide to Tipperary Newspapers, 1770-1989′ which originally appeared in Tipperary Journal, Hugh Oram’s, Newspaper Book: History of Newspapers in Ireland 1649-1983, right up to Brian Hutchison’s, Researching Irish Newspapers and Other Major Printed Sources, published in 2004, are available for consultation.  The internet connection to Newsplan: Ireland also is most beneficial.

The Rock of Cashel hotel previously near Stanthorpe, part of the Photographic Collection held by State Library of Queensland (SLQ).

PHOTOGRAPHIC TREASURES
Visual depictions often can save thousands of words, so time spent perusing the extensive range of photographs is never wasted. Images of people and places, special occasions, and industry, sailing and steamships, hotels, banks, churches, all have been captured on film over the years. These files constantly are increased with gifts from the public as well as the library’s concerted efforts to record contemporary events. Some of this material now is available digitally while reproductions in all sizes can be ordered. One lovely example is the photographic record of the Lynch family of Gympie.  On 11 November 1879 in Queensland, Cornelius Lynch of Virginia, County Meath, married Ellen Flynn from Templetouhy, County Tipperary. Within a year, the farmer/timber-getter and his bride produced the first of their eventual twelve living offspring of whom six were girls. As soon as they were able, the children were taught to fell and ringbark trees, and to clear scrub on neighbouring properties. While Michael, Cornelius, Leo, Matthew, Paul and John might be expected to fell both pine and hardwood mill logs using axe and saw, drive bullock teams, carry out contract fencing and cart wood for the Gympie mines, more intriguing was the active participation of several of the girls, Mary, Kate, Lizzie, Ellen, Rose and Grace. Dressed in their Victorian blouses and long skirts, on occasions the sisters had to prepare tracks for their horse or bullock teams before starting work on forest timber.

ON-LINE FACILITIES
The State Library of Queensland maintains an ever-expanding website with the family history items providing worldwide links. In all libraries some assets are really treasured. Among the wonderful sources found in the State Library which augment individual stories can be found the microfilmed reels of Australian material located in United Kingdom repositories. These days through the National Library of Australia’s website Trove, the Australian Joint Copying Project encompassing nearly ten thousand reels of mainly British government-generated records are available. Irish repositories including the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the Genealogical Office in Dublin, All Hallows College, Dublin, Armagh County Museum, University of Dublin-Trinity College Library and the National Archives and National Library of Ireland all allowed copying of some of their prizes. Similarly, on the shelves will be found the magnificent work by Frederick Watson who transcribed government correspondence between Australia and Britain between 1788 and 1848, in just on three dozen detailed volumes entitled Historical Records of Australia. More recently, the ‘Irish Gift’ with which the government of Ireland marked the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, made available 105 microfilm reels supplemented by an invaluable computer database, covering details on Irish convicts 1788-1853 and some free settlers’ papers between 1828 and 1852. And these descriptions cover only some of the accumulated riches waiting to be discovered either on site or online.

Glencolumbkille Heritage Village. Image of R.Edes

Perhaps it is fitting that Sheridan should have the last word: ‘Our ancestors are very good kind of folks: but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with’. This novelist and parliamentarian, born in Dublin in 1751, sounds as though he must have found far too much ‘diabolical knowledge’ about his forebears simply because he used the resources of a treasure chest such as the State Library of Queensland.