Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858

Records at the National Archives of Ireland

Irish Records Index Vol. 1

Eneclann

•Dick Eastman, Eastman’s Online Newsletter, 5 July 2000

Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858
This week I had a chance to use a new genealogy CD-ROM disk with a very long name: "Irish Records Index Volume1, Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858, Records at the National Archives of Ireland." This Windows CD-ROM produced by Eneclann Limited is an index to the Testamentary Records in the National Archives of Ireland (formerly the Public Record Office). Notice that it is called "Volume 1." Obviously there will be follow-on CD-ROM disks in the future.

This first volume covers all 32 counties for these years that were poorly documented. Volume 1 contains over 70,000 individual records with:

* over 100,000 names
* over 10,000 surnames and variants
* over 1,000 different occupations

The advertising for the Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 notes one major difference between this work and many other CD-ROM disks available for sale these days: all the data on this disk was compiled by professional archivists, not by untrained or poorly trained clerk typists. Professional historians then edited it. The efforts of these professionals should result in a much, much lower data error rate than some of the other CD-ROM disks in use today.

I was going to write about the contents of this CD-ROM disk. However, I found a great description on the disk itself, so here is the publisher's own offering:

The impetus behind this publication developed out of the needs of Eneclann's own genealogical research division. Every Irish historian and genealogist researches under the shadow of the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) in 1922. The vast majority of Ireland's testamentary records (wills, administrations, probates, etc.) were lost in that explosion. But not everything was lost. More importantly the staff at the PROI (now the National Archives of Ireland) have spent the last 77 years trying to recover from that loss. Today there are thousands of testamentary records again, although they are not always easy to find. For this reason it became clear that there was a need to publish an index to these records, making it easier for researchers and hobbyists to locate what is available. This publication aims to answer that need. So what is contained in this publication? First of all it is an index to records at the National Archives of Ireland only. Future volumes in this series (Irish Records Index) will feature sources from other archival repositories. This volume is only concerned with those records which survive in more than index form. In other words: original documents, copies, transcripts, abstracts and extracts. We have, however, not included two sources which will have to await publication in a subsequent volume of this series. These are the Betham Abstracts and the Groves Papers. The former almost exclusively relate to Prerogative wills pre-dating 1800, which have been indexed by Sir Arthur Vicars. The Groves Papers would also have been a useful addition to this project, but proved unwieldy for publication in the short term. We intend to return to both of these sources in the future. And finally, this index covers the years up to 1858, when the whole testamentary system was fundamentally overhauled. Prior to this date the established church (the Church of Ireland) had authority over all testamentary matters, including proving wills, grants of probate and administrations. This took place at the local diocesan or consistorial courts in each Diocese. There was also a central Prerogative Court under the authority of the Archbishop of Armagh as Primate of Ireland. Testamentary matters were sent to the Prerogative Court when the deceased's property was assessed to be worth more than £5 in more than one diocese. In other words the wealthiest sector of Irish society. 'The Probates and Letters of Administration Act (Ireland)' was enacted on 25 August 1857, and removed control from the Church of Ireland and placed it in the hands of the state. This Act (20 & 21 Vict. c. 79) came into force in January 1858. Thereafter all probates and administrations were granted at the Principal Registry in Dublin and District Registries throughout the country. Summaries of their proceedings were published annually in calendar form. Eneclann hopes to electronically publish these volumes in the near future.

 

In another part of the introduction, I found the following words:

Types of Documents There are several types of documents indexed on this CD. While most of the records are wills or relate to testamentary matters (wills, probate, administrations, etc.), about 10% are not. Most of these additional records are marriage licences and assorted genealogical abstracts and their inclusion in this publication is not accidental.

I was a bit surprised to find that the CD-ROM uses Internet Explorer as its search software. Using the CD-ROM was quite similar to using a site on the Internet. The data is contained in a searchable database, and there are four different search mechanisms:

* Standard Search
* Expert Search
* Soundex Search
* Table of Contents

The Standard Search will probably be the most common method. You can combine your search across the family name, forename, location, status/occupation, year and notes fields, or combine searches within each search field. For instance, you can search for a family name of Murphy and a location of Dublin. You can also specify year of death or year of birth, narrow name searches down to exact spelling or widen them to similar spellings, and more. Here is a typical record as found on my search for Murphy in Dublin:

Murphy, Andrew M610
Family Name: Murphy
Forename: Andrew
Status/Occupation: Solicitor
County: Dublin
Address: Rathgar Road, Dublin
Document Type: Administration
Document Status: Certified Copy
Year of Grant: 1847
Where Proved/Granted: Prerogative Court
NA Reference: T/674
Document ID: 48928

The above listing indicates that Document ID number 48928 is a certified copy of a document filed at Prerogative Court.

The Expert Search is quite a bit more complicated but useful with common names. With Expert Search, you can use almost all the Boolean search operators, including And, Or, Not, Exclusive Or, Phrase, single and multiple character wildcards, Ordered Proximity, Unordered Proximity, Greater Than, Less Than and Synonym. It took me a while to learn Expert Searches, but then I found that it was a powerful tool.

A Soundex Search is an excellent method of finding family names (or surnames) that can be spelled in a variety of ways. For example, "Smith" can also be spelled "Smyth," "Smithe," and "Smythe. A Soundex Search will find most spelling variations of a name.

Finally, you can start at the Table of Contents and browse through different record groupings.

When you find a document number listed, you can add that document number to a shopping cart and then later send a request for a photocopy of this document. The request goes to Eneclann, the producers of the CD-ROM. They will even scan the document in question and send the image to you by e-mail as well as sending a photocopy by "snail mail."

Each request costs $20.00 in U.S. funds. Obviously, you do not have to use Eneclann's services if you don't want to. However, this online ordering interface does provide a convenient method of using Eneclann, if you wish.

All in all, I found this CD-ROM to be an excellent genealogy tool. It contains a high-quality index to original records available at the Public Record Office of Ireland. Keep in mind it is an index; it does not contain the actual records. Like all indexes, the data available is limited to whatever the indexer(s) felt was needed. For instance, a probate record listed in this index may show the names on the will but will not list the property, the value or such genealogy tidbits as "I leave to my brother John...." If you find an ancestor listed on this CD-ROM, you will want to obtain a photocopy of the original document to examine all the data available.

The "Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858" CD-ROM requires Windows 95, 98 or NT, according to Eneclann. I suspect it will also operate on Windows 2000 although I didn't test it there myself. The disk also requires Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5. If you do not already have version 5, a copy is included on the CD-ROM. Obviously installing Internet Explorer from this CD-ROM will be much faster than downloading the same version from Microsoft's Web site.

The "Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858" CD-ROM disk costs $39.95 U.S. funds for non-European Union residents. Irish residents may purchase it for IR £36.30. Residents of other European Union countries will have to pay 46.09 Euros plus VAT of 21%. These prices do not include shipping. Luckily, it is easy for anyone to order online with a credit card, so you do not have to worry about buying a money order in some other country's currency. However, I was a bit dismayed to note that the online order form did not display a padlock symbol, indicating that it was not a secure page. I'd be reluctant to type my credit card number into a non- secure page, although I wouldn't hesitate to do so in a secure page. Perhaps you can drop a note to support@eneclann.tcd.ie and ask if they have a secure method of ordering by credit card.

To read more about the "Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858" CD-ROM disk, look at: www.eneclann.ie/cd1.htm

End

reviews