Review of a presentation by Kathleen M. McGee

In 1824 a school survey was sent to all Catholic and Protestant clergy in Ireland which resulted in "The Second Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry" published in 1826. This report lists all schools in Ireland by Barony, Diocese, and Townland. The records include information about the teachers' names, whether the school was free, its religious denomination, a description of the schoolhouse, and the number of students with their sex.

The National School System began in 1831 and its records were held by the Board of Commissioners for National Education. The three types of records kept from 1831 until 1921 were National School Applications, Salary Books and School Registers. National School Applications give information about the number of students in a school, description of the school building, subjects taught and teacher's names but do not contain any genealogical information. Salary Books contain information on the salaries paid to teachers. School Registers contain information of interest to the family historian. They list the student’s name, date of birth or date of entry into the school, religion, sex, address and father's occupation. They also include information on the subjects studied, absences, and progress reports.  

Specific instructions were given to the teachers on how to record information in the registers and so they are pretty standard. There is an alphabetical listing at the beginning of each register. Boys and girls registers are separate and ages range from three to sixteen. By carefully examining the listing at the beginning of the register you may notice children with the same surname but different ages who could be brothers or sisters. More data about each child can be found on the page listed in the register for the child's progress report. Progress reports provide information on the child's age, name, address, father's occupation and their religion. If the father was deceased the mother will be listed as a widow. If the child was absent for thirteen consecutive weeks, the reason for absence had to be recorded. Among the reasons listed were - gone to America, caring for thirteen children, apprenticed, emigrated, death in the family - or other interesting comments. When a student left the school a line was drawn through their name and if they were readmitted the date was recorded. The subjects studied included, among others, spelling, writing, arithmetic, sewing, geography, grammar, cookery and drawing. If a child showed dullness in a subject a circle was placed around their grade. Besides gleaning relationships from these records, which should be checked against other sources, they can provide interesting background information on the family. 

The Family History Library (FHL) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has most Northern Ireland records and some from the Republic. An inventory of school registers is available on FHL film # 1736304-1736305. You can order a film by searching in the Ireland Locality catalog for a specific county under the subject schools. Records are also available at the National Library in Ireland or held locally.

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