I have just returned from a couple of weeks in Ireland, seeing family and trying to find baptism and marriage entries in the microfilm collections in the NLI, and visiting the places that they were from in Cork, Kerry, and Wexford. We are ' lucky ' in knowing the parishes and townlands that they lived in, so we have a head start. BUT........... Despite the friendly, long-suffering, ever helpful and knowledgeable staff at the Library, ( and they have a really great restaurant / cafe - recommended! ), after three and a half solid days hard labour with the microfilm data resulting in my coming away with over 22 pages of close written data ( pencil, naturally ), I have a few comments to pass on; The entries are often VERY hard to read. Old copperplate handwriting and shortened forms of names - and names spelled in MANY differing forms, means that sometimes you have to make an educated guess, or include a ? next to the entry ( guess how many I have of those? ). The period that you are most interested in will invariably be either so faint that the entries are illegible, or torn and ripped, or missing, or to vary the frustration somewhat, a large thumb will appear on the film blocking out part of the data - i.e. the relevant name....... Because so few Christian names were used, and because the townlands were not included in the information, just the parish ( which covers a larger area ), you are left wondering which of the Pat or Jer, Dns or Dan, Mick ( note, not Michael ) or Curly ( Charles? ), - or Mary, Cath, Ellen or Norry ( Hanora?) is the pertinent one to your family - and might the others be relations, or not? Why could the parish priests not have a little pity and forethought and included the place they were from? So you have to fall back on the names of the sponsors ( Godparents ) - usually close relatives. At least I now understand why the professional genealogists charge so much!!! Also, would anyone understand two notes that appeared on a couple of marriage records; " Dispensation in time " - the date was on the 8th April 1866, could it have been still in Lent? " Cum dispensations in 3the ( squiggle - meaning ' and '? ) 3the consanguinis intatis " Script hard to make out, did this imply that they were cousins? Two books that listers may find interesting; THE IRISH HEDGE SCHOOL AND ITS BOOKS, 1695 - 1831, by Antonia McManus, Four Courts Press, ISBN 1-85182-812-5 FAMINE IN WEST CORK The Mizen Peninsular Land and People 1800 - 1852, by Patrick Hickey, Mercier Press, ISBN 1-85635-388-5 Slan Mary McCarthy Simpson Dorset UK