Two Irish historians have said they’ve “[won] the archive lottery” after a local man showed them a trove of valuable historic documents he’d saved from a skip 30 years ago.
Dr Paul O’Brien of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick was shown the documents by local resident Brendan Dennehy, who he met after he attended a tour on Limerick civic history given by Dr O’Brien.
Mr Dennehy rescued a collection of 28 boxes of historic documents from a skip outside a house in Limerick 30 years previously.
The boxes, which Mr Dennehy says were only about 30% of the total collection, date back to the 1600s.
They were originally put together by a land agent and contain documents relating to the running of landed estates, including rent rolls, lease books, correspondence, and some estate maps.
They cover most of Munster, although some documents relate to areas as far away as Armagh.
Dr O’Brien said the documents could shed light on family trees, which is particularly important since many Irish family history records were lost when the Public Record Office of Ireland was destroyed in a fire in the Irish Civil War.
“Often tenants that have small holdings, their names aren’t recorded anywhere, so we have hundreds of names of tenant farmers all across Munster,” he said. “With these lists, generations of farmers can be traced.”
Dr Helene Bradley Davies, Historical Geographer at Mary Immaculate College, said the find was “like winning the archive lottery in terms of the range of the material that was discovered”.
Dr O’Brien and Dr Bradley Davies have commenced research on the archive and are encouraging anyone who suspects that they may have similar historical documents to check their attic and contact their county archivist for advice.
Rosemary Collins is the features editor of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
