Lismore Castle Estate Emigration Database
This project received funding under the European Union INTERREG IIIA Ireland/Wales Community Initiative Programme. As the name suggests, it was a three-way project between partners Dublin City Archives and Waterford County Archive (Ireland Strand) and Gwynedd County Archives (Wales Strand). The Celtic Trí Project aims to foster cultural connections between Ireland and Wales, exploring links between the two nations, through music, poetry, migration, sport and the spoken word, particularly the extent and use of the two Celtic languages.
Family history was an important component of Celtic Trí, and all three archives services featured this in their scheduled projects, with funding being provided by INTERREG for the appointment of genealogists in each service on a contract basis. In addition, Waterford County Archive was awarded INTERREG funding for the creation of a database of records of genealogical interest and the production of a publication on genealogical sources in the County.
Lismore Estate Papers Emigration Record Database 1815-1905
The Lismore Estate Emigration Record Database was created to facilitate the retrieval of information relating to emigration from Lismore Castle Estate during the period 1815-1905. The Lismore Estate refers to the estates of the Dukes of Devonshire and relates to lands largely situated in the counties of Waterford and Cork. Lismore Castle was and remains the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire in Ireland.
Large families and few employment prospects ensured that a constant stream of applications were made to the agent of the Duke of Devonshire or in some cases to the Duke of Devonshire himself. These were recorded in Tenant Application Books or in the correspondence of the time. If assistance to emigrate was granted the payment was then recorded in the estate Account Books.
The Lismore Estate Emigration Record Database is comprised of four searchable fields. The information contained in these fields is taken directly from the Tenant Application Books, from correspondence with the estate and from Account Books. Each record contains the applicant's name and address (where provided), the date of the application, the applicant's destination (where provided) and a transcript of the entry contained in each or all of the aforementioned estate records. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied and in cases where it was not possible to decipher the word in the original records square brackets are given to show that the information is an educated guess rather than a certainty.
Tenant Name : Data in this field is entered in the following manner: Surname [comma] Firstname
The spelling of names has not been standardised. Therefore, when conducting a search it is essential that all spelling variations are entered. For example, if the surname O'Brien is the subject of a query, then the following variants should also be entered: Brien, Brian and Bryan. Note that prefixes, such as, O and Mac are used only sporadically in the records and therefore searches should be conducted both including and excluding them.
Townlands
The spelling of placenames in this field has been standardised. The standard used is that determined by the Lismore Estate itself, where townlands are listed in formal indices. A supplemenatry list, which includes a list of those townlands whose spelling in the Lismore Estate indices differs significantly from the spellings included in the publications Liostaí Logainmneacha Port Láirge (Dublin, 1991), The Place-Names of the Decies, Rev. P. Power (London, 1907) and Townlands in Poor Law Unions, George B. Handron (USA, 1997) is available here.
Dates
This field indicates the year in which an application to emigrate was made or granted.
Destination
This field includes the country, state or city that applicant intended to travel to e.g. UK.Wales. Cardiff.
The completed database offers a searchable record of individual migration from this estate and offers a comprehensive new source for the family historian. Similarly, the database provides interesting data on emigration from counties Waterford and Cork to various parts of the world during the period 1815-1905.