Pete, all, Here are some links to the books at Google. Volumes are too big to send. Here are the links. 1. http://books.google.com/books?id=_BcHAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q&f=false 2. http://books.google.com/books?id=OBgHAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q&f=false 3. http://books.google.com/books?id=cBgHAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q&f=false Cheers. Gary -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 5:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [IRL-LIMERICK] An interesting set of books I have recently received - via Interlibrary loan - the 3-volume set of William Shaw Mason's "Statistical account, or Parochial survey of Ireland", published between 1814 and 1819 by different publishers in Dublin. The OCLC number is 316363313. I have now copied the books (over 2200 pages !!!) and returned the originals......and am now in the process of re-binding the copies. The author was Secretary to the Board of Public Records. Although the author and most of his sources were Church of Ireland (perhaps still C of E at that time ???), the content doesn't seem show any bias in favor of the Established Church - in fact, what I have read so far seems quite sympathetic to the general RC population. The volumes contain information on 79 Parishes/Unions of the Established Church, 18 of which are in the Northern six-counties. They do not represent anything like totality of coverage of Ireland, and what parishes/unions are described don't seem to follow any pattern. For example, there are 10 Co. Cork parishes, but not a single entry for Kerry. Some parishes receive only 6 or 7 pages while most of them are 15 or so pages. Some parishes have townland maps, most from the Down Survey, and nearly all have individual townland information, such as acreages, proprietors, translations of townland name, etc. I would guess that the townland information could be helpful, as this data is from a period prior to the start of the Ordnance Survey.....and a decade before Griffith's Boundary Department started "operating" on the townlands and parishes and redefining (in some cases) the boundaries, etc. Here is the "Table of the Sections" for the books: "TABLE OF THE SECTIONS, According to which the account of every parish is arranged in this volume. I - The name of the parish, ancient and modern; its situation, extent, and division, climate and topographical description. II - Mines, minerals, and all other natural productions. III - Modern buildings both public and private, including towns, villages, gentlemen's seats, inns, &c. - the roads, scenery, and superficial appearance of the parish. IV - Ancient buildings, monastic and castellated ruins, monuments and inscriptions, or other remains of antiquity. V - Present and former state of population; the food, fuel, and general appearance; mode of living and wealth of the inhabitants; diseases and instances of longevity. VI - The genius and dispositions of the poorer classes; their language, manners and customs, &c. VII - The education and employment of their children, schools, state of learning, public libraries, &c. collection of Irish MSS, or historical documents relating to Ireland. VIII - State of the religious establishment, mode of tythes, parochial funds and records, &c. IX - Modes of agriculture, crops, stocks of cattle, rural implements, chief proprietors' names, and average value of land, prices of labour, fairs and markets, &c. X - Trade and manufactures, commerce, navigation and shipping, freight, &c. XI - Natural curiosities, remarkable occurrences, and eminent men. XII - Suggestions for improvement; and means for ameliorating the situation of the people. APPENDIX - Consisting of statistical tables, containing the value of the stock, annual produce of the parish, &c.&c." As it would be impractical for me to enter much of the information into e-mails, I tried to see if these volumes are available on-line. Google Books seems to have only volume 2, which seems odd. But perhaps it's because of my slow dial-up connection and have difficulty accessing sites meant for broadband access. However, for those interested - and on a suitable connection - it might be worthwhile to check it out. For me, I'll choose a printed book any day.........especially the old ones. The two-hundred-year-old smell is fabulous. Too bad I wasn't able to also copy the aroma [gr]. I plan on sending this general information to most of the Republic's county mailing lists over the next week or so, with added specific comments on the parts of that particular county described in the books. Although I no longer have much in the way of "free time", I'd be willing to answer questions that don't require a lot of typing (reading is OK, lotsa typing isn't). Volume 2 of this set contains the only entries for Co. Limerick - the parishes of Cahircorney [sic] and Kilfergus. Cahercorney get 17 pages of description, and it also includes the civil parish of Kilkellane (Kilcullane). The parish of Kilfergus entry is 11 pages long and includes a listing of the 27 townlands/ploughlands in the parish. Pete - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts </HTML> ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message