|
The William Smith O' Brien
Petition
Compiled and edited by Ruth Lawler
Irish Records Vol. 2
• Shirley Irvine, Ancestry
Daily News, 17 November 2001
This Disk's for You! Or Is It? Some
Thoughts on Assessing the Research Value of CDs
Names, how many names? Just about every genealogical
CD for sale wants to impress the potential buyer with vast
numbers, in the millions sometimes, but certainly in the tens
of thousands. Is this a valid way to judge the usefulness
of a disk full of data? Not by itself. Numbers of names, in
my opinion, only impress when accompanied by some information
on their context; that is, the when and where associated with
all the data. This article examines two CDs from this perspective.
The 1848 Petitions: The William Smith O'Brien Petition
Elsewhere on the Ancestry Web site you can read reviews of
this CD. These are by (Elizabeth Kelly Kerstens) and (Dick
Eastman) and both appeared in May of this year. One gives
a little more historical background, the other places emphasis
on working with disk. They refer to the importance of the
names in the list because of the time period and the shortage
of records; they discuss the number of names that come from
Ireland and England. Both reviewers recommend the resource.
If all you know is that an ancestor came from Ireland about
the time of the famine, without any idea of place of origin,
then a CD such as this is worth consulting. However, it should
not be done 'blind.' When you search the disk how do you know
what has been covered, a broad area across the country, a
limited area, or something in between? Without the context,
the search lacks meaning.
If, on the other hand, if you know exactly where the ancestor
came from and are consulting the CD because basic records
are missing or you want additional information, then it is
important to know whether the database contains entries from
the area of interest.
How does The 1848 Petitions stack up? On the cover it states
that there are eighty thousand names - seventy thousand from
Ireland and ten thousand from England. There is no clue on
the outside as to how these names are spread about the country.
Load the CD, and the opening view offers several choices,
including 'About this Publication,' 'Getting Started,' and
'Technical Support.' If you select 'About this Publication'
there are five choices, one of which is 'Introduction by Ruth
Lawler.' This is all about O'Brien, and why so many Irish
people were signing petitions on his behalf; but, hidden about
one third of the way down, is a section, 'Number of Signatures
per County.' For all thirty-two counties of Ireland, and for
eight areas in England you see the number who signed and what
percent this is of the total number, i.e., of the eighty thousand.
It could be very important that you know there are forty two
thousand, five hundred and sixty signatories from Dublin (52.6
percent of the names on the CD), or none from Offaly (formerly
King's County). There are more than four thousand each from
Clare, Tipperary, and Liverpool in England. Six counties in
Ireland and two areas in England have from one to one hundred
entries, or roughly one tenth of one percent. Anyone using
this CD should go into the Introduction and refer to this
table. It would be a great help if the information about the
high Dublin numbers, and the names of counties with more than
a thousand names could be printed on the packaging.
A little more than what is on the outside of the disk case
can be found by visiting the publisher's Web site at www.eneclann.ie
Select 'publications' and then 'take a closer look' at the
1848 Petitions. This does say that Offaly is missing, and
that Dublin makes up half the entries. In addition, there
were 166 petitions, the majority of signatories were farmers,
and less than 10 percent were women.
The matter of 'when' does not, on first consideration, seem
an issue here - the petitions were all signed at roughly the
same time in 1848/9. It may matter, however, because this
is described as a useful resource at a time when records are
scarce, and when genealogists rely heavily on Griffith's Primary
Valuation. What many fail to consider is that this Valuation
was prepared over many years.
Check the year of valuation in a county of interest. Was
it 1848, or later? How might this information affect your
assessment of the value of The 1848 Petitions? Griffith's
Primary Valuation was started in 1848 and completed in 1864;
so, for some places, the petition is signed close to the same
time and in others as much as sixteen years before. The introduction
comments on the value of relating petition information to
the Valuation. I would like to see a third column in the 'Number
of Signatures per County' table giving the date of Griffith's
Primary Valuation.
Am I at odds with my fellow reviewers? Not at all. This is
a valuable resource and I find the search options on the CD
straightforward to use. On the other hand, I would not give
a blanket recommendation that everyone interested in nineteenth
century Irish genealogy purchase it. Each genealogist should
make the effort to evaluate the relevance of the data to their
personal research needs.
Conclusion
When considering CD purchase ask a few questions. What record(s)
is it derived from? Where? When? These examples illustrate
two ways context has been addressed. I hope the reviews help
you assess your CD purchases in future, and encourage those
who package CDs to tell us more.
End
reviews |
