Return to County Galway Surname List Index Page
Page last updated Monday, 6 November 2006
These are a few of the resources I have come across during the course of my Galway research. (More will be added as I come across them.)
Recent Publications (Last twenty years)
Publications before 1980
Irish memorial inscriptions Vol 1 : Memorials of the dead: counties Galway & Mayo
This recent CD has 3,000 memorials (8,000 names maps names addresses and occupations) up to 1901 for the Western seaboard part of Galway and Mayo. Compiled and Edited by Ian Cantwell
Portrait of a parish "Ballynakill, Connemara" Contains chapters on:
The parish of Ballynakill, Early History of the Parish, Civil War and Settlement 1641-52, The 18th Century and the Penal Codes, The Blakes of Renvyle, The Parish and its People 1814-41, The Grahams and the Armstrongs, The Thomsons of Salrock, The Great Famine 1846-48, James Ellis comes to Letterfrack, Land Ownership in 1855, Mitchell Henry and Kylemore, Worship in the 19th Century, The National Schools (Contains listings of some of the pupils at Letterfrack School 1872-1915, At Lettergesh School on April 1 1879 and at Eagles's Nest School on 31 December 1880), Land Agitations, Letterfrack Industrial School 1886-1973, Living at the Turn of the Centurym Notable Visitors, Gogarty and Renvyle.
The publisher is: Tully Cross Guild Irish Countrywomen's Association, Renvyle, Co. Galway 1985
History of Clifden 1810-1860 By: Kathleen Villeirs-Tuthill (88 pages illustrated with folding map)
Privately printed, 1981
Exploring family origins in Ballinasloe Town - Local histories and guidebooks are an important source of genealogical information. I remember in years gone by of buying local guidebooks from churches and holiday locations and reading about the local people and history. I recently purchased this booklet written by Noel Farrell from Longford and published in 1998. This booklet goes a little bit further than the usual local guidebook in that it contains extracts from the 1901 & 1911 census as well as from Slaters 1894 directory, 1934 Thoms Directory, 1940 Electors list and 1858 Griffiths' valuation for Ballinasloe Town and the surrounding townlands. It also contains a detailed 1865 map of Ballinasloe Town and some other information about the area. Some of the other books in this particular series are as follows: Longford Town, CavanTown, Leitrim - Carrick on Shannon, Donegal - Ballyshannon, Donegal Town, Mount Charles & Inver, Donegal - Letterkennet, Donegal - Ballybofey and Stranorlar Parish, Wexford - Ennicorthy, Old Roscommon Town.
The publisher is: Noel Farrell, Majella, Park Road, Longford, Co. Longford, Ireland Phone no (043) 47269
Galway Roots (Clanna na Gaillimhe): Journal of the Galway Family History Society West - This is an occasional series that is published by the Family History Society from time to time. The latest in the series, Volume five was published 1998. Here is a list of the articles appearing in that Volume:
Farm to Skilled Trades: Some Scarry’s of Moylough
John Francis Reney and the ‘Fionnuala’
Memories of Emigration The Folklore Collection as a Genealogical Source
Robert O’Hara Burke The Great Australian Explorer
The D’Arcy Family of Kiltullagh
Births, Marriages & Deaths in August 1871-November 1872 (From the Tuam News and Western Advertiser)
Thomas W. Davies – Honest Son of Galway in the Wild West
Family Lore – The Key to Pandora’s Box
Alfred Horne & the Galway Grammar School
The Coastguard in Famine relief on the West Coast
Roman Catholic Dispensation Records & Genealogy in Brooklyn in the 19th Century
Early National Schools in Kiltullagh
Duggans of Galway – Their Ancient Origins
The Wilson Lynch Estate Papers
Aspects of the Archaeology, Architecture, and Sculpture of Lynch’s Castle, Galway. Part 2: The Royal Arms
The Castlegar Cody’s in New Zealand
William Joyce – Lord Haw Haw from Galway to the Third Reich and Back Again
Newells of Tuam
St. Patricks Church Rakauhauka, Southland, New Zealand: The Faith of the Galway/Irish Settlers
Clanmorris Rentals in Co. Galway
Colonel Patrick Kelly
Sister Mary Coleman O.P. From Gort to New Zealand
A McNamara Family of Annaghdown in Pittsburgh
Eva of the Nation Poet & Patriot
Tom ‘The Moor’ Molineaux and Galay
Sergeant Daniel Sullivan The Kilkerrin Connection
Popular Perceptions of the Royal Irish Constabulary During the Land war in Galay
John Ford & The Feeney Family of Galway & Portland, Maine
Gater Street, Dunmore, Co. Galway 80 Years ago
Dunmore in the 1850’s
Post Office Records a Valuable Source for Family History
Another year of records – Illustrates the extent of Galway Family History Society (West) computerisation for Church, Civil, Graveyard, Obituary, Tithe Applotment Book and Griffith’s Land Valuation records. (Eg. Church records to date are 204,888 baptism records covering 67 parishes)
The publisher is: Galway Family History Society West Ltd, Editor Marie Mannion
Galway History and Society (Published 1996 comprising 25 Chapters totalling 848 Pages)
The Anglo Norman's and their Castles in County Galway
The topography of medieval and early modern Galway
From Warlords to Landlords: Political and social change in Galway 1540-1640
Religion and the laity in early modern Galway
Aspects of intellectual life in 17th century Galway
The transfer of power: Galway 1642-1703
The politics of the 'Protestant ascendancy': County Galway 1650-1832
The worlds of a Galway squire: Robert French of Monivea 1716-1779
He land lords and land usage in 18th century Galway
The Galway tribes as landowners and gentry
The response of the poor law to the great famine in County Galway
The encumbered estates Court and Galway land ownership 1849-1858
Bishop John Macevilly and the Catholic church in late 19th century always
Minor famines and relief in Galway 1815-1925
From Connacht to North America: State aided emigration from County Galway in the 1880's
"Waiting for the promised money": Trade unionism in County Galway 1890-1914
The "Western outpost": Local Government and women's suffrage in County Galway 1898-1918
Farmers against Nationalists: The rise and fall of Clann na Talmhan in Galway
Scriobhaithe Lamhscribhinni gaeilge I ngaillimh 1700-1900
The Galway Gaeltacht 1926-1981: A socio-linguistic study of continuity and change
Trends in population and settlement in County Galway 1971-1991
Fear Ceoil Ghlinsce: Colm o caodhin
The road, the house, and the grave: A poetics of Galway space 1900-1970
Galway County Library Archives and a select bibliography of County Galway
Early ecclesiastical settlement names of County Galway
The publisher is: Geography publications, Gerard Moran (Editor), Raymond Gillespie (Associate Editor), William Nolan (Series Editor - Interdisciplinary essays in the history of an Irish County).
Marriages in the Diocese of Tuam 1821-1829 By: Helen M. Murphy & James R. Reilly, 1993
This is an indexed transcription of almost 4,000 marriages from the Roman Catholic diocese of Tuam (LDS film reference: FHL #0979699 Item 5). Overall 46 parishes are represented in the 7 deaneries which make up the diocese of Tuam. The majority of these parishes fall in Galway, although some crossover into Mayo and Roscommon.
The publisher is: Heritage Books Inc., 1540-E Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie, Maryland 20716
Forthcoming publication - NEW EDITION OF Barefoot and Pregnant? The Genealogical Society of Victoria in conjunction with Trevor McClaughlin is planning for a revised edition of the very useful work, Barefoot and Pregnant? Irish Famine orphans in Australia. Publication of the new version is planned for late 2000 or early 2001. Those people who kindly allowed their name to be printed in the ‘Register of orphans’, in the first edition, may wish to have their new/current address in the revised version. Please note: Names and address from the first volume will NOT be automatically included in the second volume. YOU must re-submit your ancestors name along with your name and address. We are also seeking photographs of the ‘orphan girls’ to include in the second volume. If you would like your name alongside the 'orphan girl' you are interested in, please write to Dr Trevor McClaughlin , c/- Dept Modern History, Macquarie University, NSW 2109 or The Editor, The Genealogical Society of Victoria, Level 6, 179 Queen St, Melbourne 3000.
Na Tuatha Gallimhe/The Tribes of Galway By: Adrian J. Martyn (The summary below is as provided by Adrian)
"This is the first book to deal in-depth with the fourteen merchant families that made the town of Galway famous. Though many books and articles deal with the history of the town and county, this is the first book by a member of one of the Tribes, which explains the origins, history and descent of these families. They were as follows: Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Darcy, Deane, Font, French, Joyce, Kirwin, Lynch, Martin, Morris, and Skerrett. These families, who settled in the town between 1261 and 1539, made their fortunes by trading goods from Ireland to England, Spain, France, Portugal and the West Indies. In latter years, they became soldiers, landlords and rebels, but such of them as are left in Galway are now somewhat vague as to their history.
Famous members of the Tribes covered include John Deane, who discovered the identity of one of the executioners of King Charles I; Mayor Andrew Morris, who was forced to execute seventy survivors of the Spanish Armada in 1589. John Blake Fitz Henry, who almost totally wiped out the Athy Tribe in 1440; Germyn Lynch, entrepreneur extraordinary, who worked as a merchant in Iceland, a goldsmith in London and a Keeper of the Irish Mints (from which post he was fired five times); the pro-Nazi William Joyce, AKA Lord Haw-Haw; Margaret Athy, who founded a monastry in Galway while her husband was in Spain; Captain Richard "Nimble Dick" Martin who through all sorts of legal trickery ended up owning most of Connamara; Geoffrey French, who arrived penniless in Spain and but died as a Knight of St. James; Geoffrey Browne, who tried to sell the town to the Duke of Lorraine; Captain James Blake, who was a triple-agent for the Irish, English and Old English in the 1590's; Rev. F.X. Martin, who faced imprisonment and a bill of almost a quarter of a million for holding up a construction site in Dublin for archaeologists to survey.
Mr. Martyn provides a four-page overview of the history of the Tribes and the town, before tackling the different families. The book also contains a four-page chronology of the history of Galway town from 1124 to 2001, and an appendix dealing with eighty of the Non-Tribal families that settled there from the 1200's to the mid-1600's. The latter group contains such families as Begge, Bermingham, Branegan, Carey, DeLapp, Fallon, Kenny, Lang/Long, Leonard, Merrick, Nolan, O'Halloran, Quin, Sepishend, Tierney, and Webbe.
Adrian J. Martyn was born in Galway in 1975, and is a professional genealogist and writer. Among his future projects is an expanded book on the Tribes, plus a book on over five hundred surnames of Co. Galway, which he hopes to publish next year. He has been working on a book on the history of his own family since 1996, and hopes to have it finished within a few years.
He can be contacted at fergananim@yahoo.co.uk, or 37 Cresent View, Riverside, Galway City, Republic of Ireland. Copies of the book are available in all Galway bookstores."
Publications before 1980
A number of books on Galway's history are available online at http://www.galway.net/galwayguide/history/
William R Wilde's "History of Lough Corrib" (1867)
Hardiman's "History of Galway" (1820)
Roderick O'Flahertys "1684 History of Connaught"
Galway's Waterways