Other Genealogical Sources in the RCB Library

Apart from Church of Ireland archives, the RCB Library holds a number of collections with obvious attraction to genealogists.

Among the more important are the biographical succession lists of Church of Ireland clergy, compiled by J B Leslie; collections of copy wills; extracts from the destroyed 1766 religious census; collections of pedigrees; databases of church plate, stained glass windows and portraits.

The Church of Ireland as the lineal descendant, legally at least, of the Church in Ireland following the Reformation, and, subsequently as the established Church until the late nineteenth century, has inherited responsibility for many of the sources which are fundamental to Irish local history. Records of parishes, dioceses and cathedrals, church buildings and graveyards, memorials in stone, glass and silver contain much valuable information not only about local Church of Ireland people but also the wider communities in which they lived and worked

Church of Ireland records (2nd ed., Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2006), written by the Librarian and Archivist of the Church of Ireland, Dr Raymond Refaussé, offers an introduction to the archives and manuscripts of the Church of Ireland and to the administrative structures which produced these records. Access to the records both intellectually and physically, is discussed, as are problems of interpretation.

Church of Ireland records is available through bookshops at €14.95.