The Summer Talks at lunchtime will take place every Tuesday and Thursday 1-2pm in the National Library of Ireland. Here are the speakers for week 2 of the talks.
Paul MacCotter
Tuesday August 2nd
Territory, Maps and Geneaolgy
Dr. Paul MacCotter began his interest in heritage as an amateur genealogist in his Twenties. This interest led into an appreciation of Irish history and heritage, and MacCotter obtained his MA by independent research at UCC in 1994 for his thesis on a leading Anglo-Norman lineage. After this he continued his studies into general and Specialist genealogy and medieval history. During this time he continued to study, research and publish in the areas of medieval history, Anglo-Norman history, church history, genealogy, and Irish surname studies. These publications ranged from populist genealogical magazines to high status peer reviewed historical journals. MacCotter currently has nearly fifty papers published and four books. He was awarded his PhD in UCC in 2006.
Venue: National Library of Ireland
Time: 1.00PM
Two years later his thesis was published. Medieval Ireland: territorial, political and economic divisions (Fourcourts Press, 2008, rep. 2014) has come to be regarded as a major reference work and MacCotter as a leading authority on this important aspect of medieval Irish history. He worked as Historical Consultant for the Heritage Council funded INSTAR project, Making Christian Landscapes, between 2008 to 2010, and obtained a prestigious two year Government of Ireland fellowship, in 2010. Dr. MacCotter currently continues his academic research, with several studies forthcoming, and is an assistant lecturer in the Schools of History and Adult Continuing Education, UCC, and a research associate with the Irish Ancestry Research Company of the University of Limerick. A list of his extensive publications may be accessed at http://www.paulmaccotter.com/publications/
Irish spatial divisions and Ancestry: Maps, Spaces and Places
© Dr. Paul MacCotter
1. What are spatial or demographic structures?
2. What relevance are demographic structures to genealogists?
3. Historical demographic structures
4. ‘Modern’ demographic structures
5. Online mapping resources
The classic Irish civil landscape hierarchy of demographic organization:-
Townland – civil parish – barony – county – province
These are the main historical demographic units
The genealogist needs to understand the origins of these units as an aid to understanding their use as genealogical tools
Other relevant units are diocese, tuath, medieval parish, baile
Note the difference between civil parish and modern church parish
Note also Poor Law Unions and District Electoral Divisions
The genealogical relevance of the various online map sites:
Show Homestead location as given in Griffiths, farm extent and location, urban address, search tools aid townland location
17th century Down Survey mapping of limited use due to hugh level of error, ideally suitable for the genealogy of landowning Catholic families, c. 1641
Key websites:
http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/
http://griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/
Fiona Fitzsimons
Thursday August 4th
Explorations in Irish Genealogy
The idea for this talk came from a conversation with a first time visitor to the genealogy service in the National Library. He took up history late in life because he thought "it wasn't for the likes of us." Genealogy is not a luxury reserved for the great and good - it's a simple tool with practical appplications. Fiona Fitzsimons takes a wry look at how genealogy can help you save money; improve your social network faster than Facebook; and can literally save lives.
Fiona Fitzsimons is a co-founder of Eneclann, and the Irish Family History Centre at EPIC. Since 1996 she has led the Eneclann research team, and established their work as a benchmark in family history in Ireland and internationally. From 2012 to the present, Fiona has hosted the popular Summer Talks series in the National Library of Ireland.
Venue: National Library of Ireland
Time: 1.00PM