Paddy Waldron threw me this juicy steak last week and I'm still drooling over it. And if I'd kept up with the postings on the Library site at http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... places.htm I would have seen that it has also been flagged there.
Back in the 1830s in the context of the Ordnance Survey the surveyors produced a set of Field Name Books(see http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/maps/intro.htm ) which record townland names in English and Irish, as well as their meanings, in addition to a variety of other information. The Field Name Books (also Name Books) of places in Clare can be consulted in the Clare Library Local Studies Centre in Ennis. They are a goldmine of information because, for each place, they list the various names with their synonyms together with the names of the people who provided the information.
I'd known for some time that the Fiontar (DCU) and The Placenames Branch (Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs) were developing an online Placenames Database of Ireland but every time I'd looked at it it was "Work in Progress". Now it's up and motoring and it's an Aladdin's Cave of placename information because - this is the killer - they have digitalised the transcriptions of the 1835-40 Field Name Books !
I won't blether on about it. Just go to http://www.logainm.ie/ and punch in "your" Clare placename and take it from there.
Paddy
Clare (or other ) placenames database - logainm.ie
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Paddy Casey
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Re: Clare (or other ) placenames database - logainm.ie
Paddy C.,
I tried the site with several of my East Clare townlands, with results that were not half as good as some West Clare townlands (which have index cards of comments like how people of that locality pronounce the placename and long lists showing how the name evolved over time). The East Clare townland for my Carberry line has only two entries regarding the name in the 1700s and then this: Lakyle AL 1840. I assume that this is a reference to the Ordnance Survey field note books. I tried finding a screen/page that would explain the various abbreviations used, without success. I saw nothing that led to any digitized text of those books. Can you elucidate further ? Thanks.
Sharon C.
I tried the site with several of my East Clare townlands, with results that were not half as good as some West Clare townlands (which have index cards of comments like how people of that locality pronounce the placename and long lists showing how the name evolved over time). The East Clare townland for my Carberry line has only two entries regarding the name in the 1700s and then this: Lakyle AL 1840. I assume that this is a reference to the Ordnance Survey field note books. I tried finding a screen/page that would explain the various abbreviations used, without success. I saw nothing that led to any digitized text of those books. Can you elucidate further ? Thanks.
Sharon C.
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Paddy Casey
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Re: Clare (or other ) placenames database - logainm.ie
Hi Sharon,
Last week I had a most interesting and informative chat with one of the people in Dublin involved in the Placenames database. Among other things, I was wondering how in these days of fiscal stringency the Government had been able to resource the rooms full of scribes that would have been needed to transcribe the vast amount of information in the Field Name Books. It turns out that I was way off the mark in my assumptions. There never were roomsful of scribes, just a small room with a few anonymous and unsung scribes and scholars who have/had been beavering away since the mid-1940s transcribing the field name information onto those yellow index cards that you can view on their site. The work of these scribes and scholars included the interpretation of the Old Irish entries in the Name Books. Now, over the last 2-3 years, a hi-tec unit has been digitising the info on those cards to produced the database that we can access online to our mutual delight.
Unfortunately there is no list of the abbreviations on the website. I suggested that they add one and the suggestion was taken on board. AL=Field Name Books, BS=Boundary Survey.
There are no facsimiles of the Field Name Book pages online.
Paddy
Last week I had a most interesting and informative chat with one of the people in Dublin involved in the Placenames database. Among other things, I was wondering how in these days of fiscal stringency the Government had been able to resource the rooms full of scribes that would have been needed to transcribe the vast amount of information in the Field Name Books. It turns out that I was way off the mark in my assumptions. There never were roomsful of scribes, just a small room with a few anonymous and unsung scribes and scholars who have/had been beavering away since the mid-1940s transcribing the field name information onto those yellow index cards that you can view on their site. The work of these scribes and scholars included the interpretation of the Old Irish entries in the Name Books. Now, over the last 2-3 years, a hi-tec unit has been digitising the info on those cards to produced the database that we can access online to our mutual delight.
Unfortunately there is no list of the abbreviations on the website. I suggested that they add one and the suggestion was taken on board. AL=Field Name Books, BS=Boundary Survey.
There are no facsimiles of the Field Name Book pages online.
Paddy