I originally mailed this to CountyCork-D@rootsweb.com. Sorry for the repetition, but I intended it as a reply to the irl-cork@rootsweb.com discussion about the use of 'X' as a signature. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Irish literacy Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:11:58 -0400 From: David Collins <dfc.jr@earthlink.net> Reply-To: dfc.jr@earthlink.net Organization: self To: CountyCork-D@rootsweb.com When I first started my family history, I was surprised at the number of my Famine ancestors who were illiterate; virtually all of them were. The Irish Censuses from 1841 to, at least, 1901 provide some impressive statistics about the rates of Irish literacy. In 1841, 53% of all Irish people over the age of five could neither read nor write. The illiteracy rate for the Province of Connaught in 1841 was 72%. By 1901, the rate had dropped to 14% for all of Ireland and 21% for Connaught. After the introduction of Civil Registration in 1864, the Irish (English) began to keep track of those who signed marriage registers with an 'X'. The 1871 Census show that 37.5% of men and 45.2% of women used an 'X'. By 1901 those rates were down to 13.2% (men) and 10.7% (women). These numbers coincide fairly closely with the 1871 & 1901 Census figures for literacy. The Penal Laws, which were eventually abolished by the early part of the 19th century, were largely responsible for the illiteracy rates. The Hedge Schools were the Irish answer to the prohibition of 'popish education'. But the hunger for education among even the poorest Irish led to the establishment of the first system of national education in the English-speaking world in the early 1830s. David Collins Hudson, MA, USA