Irish Articles on JSTOR FREE

     
     This morning I received an email from the Irish Family History Foundation, informing me death records had been added to the Waterford section of their site.  I ran a search and found a possibility or two for my 3rd great grandfather Edmond Power who appears not to have come to America with the rest of his family.  I then checked the Family Search site which has an Irish Civil Registration index, but oddly enough, I was unable to find the same entries there.  I really don't want to cough up 25 credits to view each index page, which I'm not sure whether this is or not, so I just copied the possibilities and I'll wait until the site has one of their frequent "sales" to check them out.

     It reminded me though, the Waterford County Library, of whose collections I've blogged before, has some very detailed death records, and memorials on it's site so I checked there.  Again, no dice.  I did notice however, the site now offers free access to JSTOR's Irish collection.  JSTOR, short for "Journal Storage", is a digital library of scholarly books, journals and articles, usually available by subscription.  You have to register for free to read some, but not all, of the articles, and those are put on a virtual shelf for two weeks, still free.  You may have three at a time on your shelf.  It costs $14 to download an article, but they can be read online, as I can't stress enough, free.

     To reach the site, click here to go to the e-journal page of the library.  Select JSTOR near the bottom of the page, this will take you to a page with a search box and list of titles.  I selected the journal, Studia Hibernica, for no particular reason other than it sounded kind of high-brow.  The  page that next appeared also had a search box where I typed in "tithe", which brought up 58 results sorted by relevance.  You can also opt to sort by newest or oldest.  The first hit was  Opposition to Tithe Payments in 1830-31, by Patrick O'Donoghue, published in 1966, parts one and two.  

     So that is where I've been all morning, reading about the tithe, and it's fascinating. I've learned that Rev. Whitty, a tithe receiver, was murdered near his house in Golden Tipperary, eight miles from where my 3rd great grandfather Cornelius Ryan lived--I'll bet that caused a stir in grandpa's neighborhood.  And I've read a quote attributed to Fr. Lawlor of Baltinglass, my 3rd great grandfather Daniel McGarr's parish priest.  It reads in part," ...I do not advise you not to pay tithes, but take this with you.  I do not advise you to pay tithes because I would not advise you to do that which I would not do myself. I will never pay tithes as long as I live."  I admire Father Lawlor's attitude, and his interesting turn of phrase.

     A few entries down, I see an article titled, Burials and Bigotry in Early Nineteenth Century Ireland, I think that one's next on my list... once a history nerd, always a history nerd.