Brian Mitchell has added two new volumes to his series on Derry-Londonderry genealogy. One covers the place names of county Derry, while the other offers a list of inhabitants extracted from the 1921 Derry Directory. These new books complement Mitchell’s 2014 works, Tracing Derry-Londonderry Roots and Derry Londonderry: Gateway to a New World. The Story of Emigration from the Foyle by Sail and Stream.

New! The Place Names of County Derry

The Place Names of County Derry consists of two parts. In Part One researchers will find a list of 1,750 place names, in alphabetical order, as recorded in the 1901 census returns for the city and county of Londonderry (also known as Derry). It includes the names of all townlands, together with street listings for all towns, in County Derry. Against each place name, i.e. townland or town and street, is recorded the following information: district electoral division, parish, registrar district, poor law union, and 17th-century landowner. Knowing the record jurisdictions for place names will result in more effective use of major Irish record sources such as 1901 and 1911 census returns; church registers; civil registers of births, marriages, and deaths; the national indexes to civil birth, marriage, and death registers; and estate records.

Part Two, County Derry Parish Reports, features record sources of value–both civil and church–to family historians, compiled and recorded by parish. Realistic genealogical research, in the absence of indexes and databases, generally requires knowledge of the parish in which your ancestor lived. This section details parish reports, in alphabetical order, for each of Derry’s 46 civil parishes, describing and locating the parish, identifying the top ten surnames in the mid-19th century, and detailing the major record sources for that parish.

New! The People of Derry City, 1921: Extracted from the “Derry Almanac and Directory”

Because the 1926 census for Northern Ireland was used for waste paper in World War II, the first census that survives since 1911 for the city and county of Londonderry is that of 1937, and this will be available for inspection in the year 2038 (unless the 100-year closure rule is waived before then). This means that each annual edition of the Derry Almanac is the closest surviving census document for Derry city in the period from 1912 to 1936.

This new publication by Irish genealogist Brian Mitchell lists inhabitants, in alphabetical order by surname, in Derry City in 1921. As transcribed here, the work contains five fields: surname of head of household, first name of head of household, street address, house number, and page number of the listing in the Derry Almanac. In all, the Derry Almanac and Directory of 1921 names 8,288 heads of household in Derry city.

Derry-Londonderry: Gateway to a New World. The Story of Emigration from the Foyle by Sail and Stream

The emigration trade established Derry as one of the chief Irish ports for the transatlantic trade in the 18th century. For example, in 1771 the American colonies took more linen cloth and provisions from Derry than Britain did, and 30 percent of Ulster-Scots, around 75,000 people, emigrated through Derry to North America prior to 1776. Brian Mitchell captures the protagonists and milestones of this history in his beautifully illustrated tribute to Derry-Londonderry’s place in emigration history. The author’s brief narrative explains Derry’s rise and ultimate decline as a port of embarkation, conveys century by century what people utilized the port, traces the changes in emigration from the age of sail to the age of steam, and draws attention to individuals like composer Stephen Foster’s great-grandfather, Alexander Foster, who sailed from Derry, and to vessels like the Adam Lodge, which sailed from Derry to Australia. Highlighting the book are numerous illustrations that flesh out the Derry story, including passenger notices, sample passenger lists, pictures and photographs of actual vessels and passengers–some of them quite moving–maps, and more.

Tracing Derry-Londonderry Roots

Tracing Derry-Londonderry Roots recounts Derry’s importance in Irish emigration and explains how it impacts genealogical research for the area. The introductory chapters discuss the fundamentals of genealogical research, such as reviewing family papers and gathering family reminiscences, before emphasizing the importance of place or locality in all of Irish research. In Derry’s case, this means ascertaining the name of the townland(s) your forebears came from in order to utilize the treasure trove of Irish records that can shed light on the people who lived there. The meat of the book consists of a review of the main record sources for Derry genealogy, including civil registers of births, marriages, and deaths; church registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials; gravestone inscriptions; wills; 1901 and 1911 census returns; mid-19th-century Griffith’s Valuation; early 19th-century Tithe Applotment Books; the 1831 census; and pre-1800 census substitutes. Brian Mitchell explains where you can find these sources (including Internet sources) before launching into a discussion of the main Irish record repositories for Derry ancestry research. He concludes with a detailed treatment of all the local record offices.

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