Details of Library holdings

The library holds a considerable amount of unique material, including a substantial collection of manuscripts about Irish families of all origins and from all parts of Ireland; these can vary from one or two pages of notes to extensive pedigrees.

The holdings include collections of former members of the Society who were able to use the records in the Public Record Office of Ireland prior to its destruction in 1922. Also included is material from members who have undertaken the collation and collection of data from record offices and archive repositories.

Please note that material from these collections is copyrighted. Permission to photocopy is not always granted due to the fragility of some of this material. No material copied may be reproduced or reprinted in any medium whatsoever without the express written permission of the Society.

A selection of the material held:

• Hussey-Walsh Manuscripts
  This is an extensive collection of wills, chancery and exchequer bills, decrees, pleadings and pedigrees related to the Hussey and Walsh families and other related families. The collection has a complete index of persons
• Swanzy manuscripts and will abstracts
  Three indexed volumes of transcripts of chancery and exchequer bills concerned with counties, Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Galway and Roscommon and 132 Diocesan will abstracts and 379 Prerogative will abstracts collected by Rev. Canon Swanzy, Rector of Newry, County Down.
• Butler manuscripts
  Transcripts of the Ormonde Deeds 1603-1715 and a large collection of Butler manuscripts, including Chancery and Exchequer bills and Butler wills.
• Genealogical annotations to the convert rolls
  These typescript annotations to entries in the calendar of Convert Rolls were compiled by Father Wallace Clare. The annotations can be extremely detailed and extensive but only cover about a quarter of the entries. There is an index of other persons mentioned in the annotations. This is supplementary material to that available in the “The Convert Rolls” edited by Eileen O’Byrne (Irish Manuscript Commission 1981).
• Leader collection of parish register transcripts
  This is an important collection of transcripts for some extant Church of Ireland parish registers and cover the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne, Ross and Limerick. The collection includes some Presbyterian, Methodist and Quaker register transcripts.
• De La Ponce manuscript
  Material collected by Monsieur Amadie de la Ponce, of Paris, relating to the genealogies and military service of officers of the Irish Brigades in the service of France in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. - A copy of that held by The Royal Irish Academy.
• Smythe Wood collection of notebooks and card indexes
  This collection has a strong , but not uniquely, Northern Irish interest. Much is taken from biographical entries in 18^th and 19^th century Irish provincial newspapers and Canadian newspapers. There are also volumes of wills and extensive biographical information on card indexes for families from the North of Ireland.
• The Nugent collection
  The fruits of extensive research by Oliver Nugent of Antigua, West Indies and of the family Nugent of Drumaree, County Westmeath. Details of that branch of the family and of Count Laval of Austria and listing of Nugent material in the Farnham Manuscripts and from other material in the library.
• Betham index of pedigrees
  Sir William Betham’s Index of Irish pedigrees, formerly in the possession of Sir Arthur Vicars, Ulster King of Arms and of Burke, Garter King of Arms. Also transcripts of wills collected by Betham, but not the microfilms of Betham’s Will Abstracts.
• Simon de Montford collection
  Biographical indexes to Irish Provincial Newspapers from Longford and Westmeath from early to mid 19th century.
• The Frances-Jane French Collection of genealogical notes and trees - about 800 files.