Collections on Burke's Peerage
Burke's Landed Gentry Irish Families (supplement to the 15th Edition)
Burke's Landed Gentry have recorded the non-titled families in Ireland intermittently over the past 170 years alongside those of England, Scotland and Wales. Now for the first time, the Irish Landed Gentry are available online as part of the Burke's Peerage searchable database. Originally included in the Irish supplement of the 15th Edition of Burke's Landed Gentry, these 244 records are being updated to form Volume 2, of the new 19th Edition of the Burke's Landed Gentry Series. It is Burke's aim to significantly expand this resource over time to include a wider range of influential families and individuals of Irish descent. This volume will complement the new Scottish, Irish and English & Welsh volumes in forming the most comprehensive Burke's Landed Gentry Series ever produced.
This new addition to the database lists the land-owning families of Ireland, many of which record generations stretching back many centuries. Interestingly, many of the families recorded during the first half of the 20th Century were "formerly of", indicating they no longer held the lands to which the record referred to. Their inclusion was justified because of the significant contribution they and their ancestors had made to Ireland's development down the centuries.
Much of the quality and authority associated with the Irish records can be attributed to the work of George Dames Burtchaell, then Deputy Ulster, when he produced the 3rd edition of Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland in 1912. Though not the editor, he went through each record in extraordinary detail, correcting inaccuracies, throwing new light on doubtful claims while removing others. He was the most pertinent contributor of Irish information to the Complete Peerage, and was described as "probably the most accomplished genealogist Ireland has ever known" by Thomas Sadleir, co-author of the Alumni in 1935.
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