Book Report: Irish Families, Great & Small

 March is time for Irish families & stories. I have Irish ancestors on both sides of my family. Maybe you do too. Here is a book you may want to read & learn from.

Volume IV of the Irish Families, Great & Small:

Families of County Cork by Michael C. O’Laughlin

Kansas City, Missouri: The Irish Genealogical Foundation.

1999

“Co. Cork is the largest county in the province of Munster, and in all of Ireland. To the east are counties Tipperary and Waterford. To the north is Limerick, and to the west is Co. Kerry. Co. Cork is given as holding some 700,000 inhabitants in the year 1831.”

This small hardcover book begins with maps and a brief history of County Cork including mentions of the Normans, Vikings, ancient bloodlines, tribes and invasions. There are several maps of the county, drawn at different times in the history of the county.

The bulk of the book is an alphabetical list of surnames with related spellings and a history of the family name. Some histories fill a column and others a single line. Of course, the families I am interested in have brief histories.

I am interested in the English & Mullane families. I found this for those surnames:

ENGLISH

“Several of the name are given in an 1851 census of the Union of Kilworth in Co. Cork.” 

MULLANE

“Mullan. A name found centered in Cork for several centuries, and linked with Macroom there.” 

There is also a listing of Cork Placenames. 

“A selection of placenames found in 17th – 20th Century Records including Modern Parishes, Unions & Registrars Districts.” 

For further research the Addendum has a list of works that are “good examples of published sources available to those researching their Cork roots.” They can be found in the Irish Genealogical Foundation library. There is also a list of Irish repositories for Cork research.

I had hoped to discover more about the English & Mullane surnames in this book. However, there are some names with more extensive information. The value of this work for your research depends on which surname you are researching.

MY LIBRARY

At the top of this blog, click on My Library for many more books that I have found useful for genealogical & historical research.