Olive C. Goodbody

Guide to Irish Quaker Records, 1654-1860 : with Contribution on Northern Ireland Records by B. G. Hutton Olive C. Goodbody

The pyramidal meeting structure so characteristic of the Quaker Church was established in Ireland following George Fox's visit there in 1669. In this elegant volume, published originally by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Mrs. Goodbody lays out the history and organization of the Quaker Church in Ireland and then proceeds to describe the various kinds of records that were kept so meticulously by the Friends' meetings throughout Ireland. These records, which are described with precision in the Introduction, include minute books; membership records; registers of births, marriages, deaths, and certificates of removal; wills; records of the poor; property records, and more. The bulk of the book takes the form of an inventory and synopsis of Quaker records in Ireland, and with the appended contribution of B. G. Hutton, in Northern Ireland as well. Part I, for Ireland, and the Appendix, for Northern Ireland, enumerate all Irish Quaker meetings--arranged from the National to the Monthly Meeting--specifying the kinds of extant records for each, with the years of coverage. The bulk of the volume (Part II) describes the holdings of a number of private collections of Quaker records housed at the Historical Library in Dublin. The records, which fall into the following categories, are annotated here and divulge, even in the abstract, a great deal of specific genealogical data: family collections, manuscript drafts, school records, diaries, will abstracts, deeds and other legal documents, portfolios, maps and plans, and various miscellaneous sources. Following the two appendices of records pertaining to the Ulster Province Meeting and Quaker records in the PRO of Northern Ireland, researchers will find a list of surnames occurring in Irish Quaker registers and a complete name index to the more than 5,000 Irish Quakers referred to in this volume.