The very words "church archivist" are enough for many to conjure up images of dust-covered registers being dug out of cobweb-bedecked crypts or retrieved from behind the locked and bolted doors of Victorian vestry safes.
However, the recent refurbishment of the Representative Church Body's Library in Dublin has provided church archivists, historians and genealogists with some of the finest working conditions imaginable. The RCB Library is a treasure trove, containing many parish registers that might otherwise have been destroyed in the fire at the Four Courts during the Civil War. And, with their helpful and thoroughly modern approach, the staff - Raymond Refausse, Mary Furlong, Heather Smith and Susan Hood - defy all the stereotype images that are associated with crypts and archives.
Dr Refausse produced a celebrated guide to the medieval guilds of Dublin some years ago, and since 1994 he has overseen a new project, publishing important parish registers held in the archives of the RCB Library. Between 1906 and 1915, the Parish Register Society of Dublin published 12 volumes of Church of Ireland parish registers, mainly, but not exclusively, from Dublin city and county. This work was taken over in 1920 by the Association for the Preservation of Memorials of the Dead, which included extracts from parish registers in its Journal until 1934.
Picked up baton
But the publication of parish registers and abstracts from registers lapsed after 1930. Now Dr Refausse has picked up the baton, and since 1994 four parish registers have gone to print. He has edited the Register of the Parish of Thomas, Dublin, 1750-1791, which was published in 1994, and the Register of the Church of St Thomas, Lisnagarvie, Co Antrim, 1637- 1646, which followed in 1996. Colin Thomas edited a third volume published in 1997, the Register of the Cathedral Church of St Columb, Derry, 1703-1732.
Now a fourth volume has been produced in the series. Dr Susan Hood, who is Assistant Librarian and Archivist in the RCB Library, has edited the Register of the Parish of Holy Trinity (Christ Church), Cork, 1643-1669, which was launched earlier in the summer in the presence of the new Bishop of Cork, the Right Rev Paul Colton.
Holy Trinity was one of only two churches situated within the medieval walls of the City of Cork, the less important St Peter's Church lying further south. It was the burial place of the leading families of the town, and it was here that the poet Edmund Spenser probably married Elizabeth Boyle. The parishioners included many prominent figures, including the Lord President of Munster, Lord Inchiquin and Lord Broghill, in addition to several of Cork's leading families, such as the Hydes and St Legers. A succession of corporation officers, including mayors, sheriffs, recorders, sergeants-at-mace, sword bearers and city clerks were married here, had their children baptised here, and were buried within the precincts of the church.
Nearly thrown out
The church finally closed for worship on November 23rd, 1978, and the building was taken over by Cork Corporation to house the Cork Archive Council. According to Dr Hood, the parish registers, spanning the period from 1643 to 1857 and totalling 11 volumes, were "nearly thrown out with the rubbish in the mid 19th century".
They were transferred to the Public Records Office after the first Public Records Office was passed in 1875. But a later amendment to the act allowed them to return to local custody; they were sent back to Cork, ensuring they were rescued from destruction yet again, escaping the tragic fire of 1922.
The registers remained in the church long after it was sold, and it was not until 1995 that they were transferred to the RCB Library in Dublin.
The destruction of many of the records from St Finn Barre's Cathedral in the Four Courts fire makes the registers of Holy Trinity an even more valuable resource for historians, genealogists, and all who are interested in tracing the social life of Cork as it grew as a city. Dr Hood's volume recounts the baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish between 1643 and 1669. But she also provides the reader with graphic details of the social and economic conditions prevailing in mid-17th century Cork.
Cromwell's campaign
The large number of military burials in Holy Trinity in 1645 and 1646 illustrate the extent of the battle for control of the southern city during Cromwell's campaign in Ireland. But despite the English influence throughout the 17th century, the parish register also records the names of individuals and families who were clearly of Gaelic Irish origin: Cauly, Doare, Donogh, Flynn, Looby, McHugh, MacUnbawe, Morrogh, Moore, Nolane, O'Dullane, O'Huolehan, O'Sorlor and Quinn.
Dr Hood is well-known to historians and genealogists and her work on the registers of Holy Trinity will enhance that reputation. Recently, the Ireland's Preservation Foundation of Philadelphia awarded her the Father Nowlan Fellowship in Archival Management which allowed her to attend a two-week training programme in the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives in Washington.
Dr Hood's latest book covers only one of the 11 surviving registers saved from Holy Trinity in Cork. And those 11 registers amount to only one of over 650 collections of Irish parish records that are open to the public in the RCB reading room in Braemor Park, Dublin.