John Hamrock - A Guide to Tracing your Roscommon Ancestors

Roscommon is a landlocked county in the province of Connaught and is 60 miles from north to south and 40 miles from west to east. The landscape is mainly flat except for the Braulieve mountains at the North-eastern corner, and the Curlew mountains to the northwest. Lough Key and Lough Gara also form part of the northern boundaries with Leitrim and Sligo. It is bounded to the east by the Shannon river and lakes and by counties Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, and to the west by the river Suck and counties Galway and Mayo. It is primarily an agricultural county, with generally fertile soil.

In the decade of the Great Famine, from its peak population in 1841 of 253,591 inhabitants, the population dropped by over 30% to 174,492 due to death and emigration. The following table (from British Parliamentary Papers: The Census of Ireland for the Year 1851, Alexander Thom, Dublin) illustrates the decline in each Barony. This decline continued over the following century and the current population (2002) is almost 54,000 and slowly increasing once again

Roscommon people have historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The 1861 Census The religious denominations are further detailed on page 35.

The purpose of this guide is to direct beginner and experienced researchers to information on Roscommon ancestors within the confusing range of sources that exist. Further information on some sources is in the end-notes (page 146) which are numbered within each chapter. A particular goal is to inform readers about manuscript sources, most of which cannot be accessed over the internet. To avail of these resources one must visit archives or retain a professional genealogist.

Summary by Baronies