What were Irelands towns like in 1837?
www.libraryireland.com Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Directory, published in 1837, provides contemporaneous descriptions and statistics for counties, towns and villages across Ireland. Some of the details, particularly those referring to size and make-up of the local population, are taken from the 1831 census which was destroyed shortly after statistics had been extracted from it. Providing some history of localities and vivid descriptions of churches, architectural styles and town layout, Lewis also included dates of markets and annual fairs, and details of a location’s trade and industry, hospital, church and education facilities. There’s a lot to be gleaned from this resource. Even if your ancestors lived in the rural hinterlands, you can be sure they at least occasionally made the trip to their nearest towns. Lewis’s Directory gives a fascinating glimpse of what greeted them there in the decade before the Great Hunger ravaged much of the country. The book is available online, and fr
