After the fire, appeals were made throughout Ireland, England, Scotland, and America, for all who had copied the records during the past 53 years, to send their copies or transcripts, abstracts, or notes, to replace the burned records.
It was known that a large number of original records (wills, marriage records, parish registers, etc.) had never been sent to this office and these or copies were requested. The appeals brought tremendous response. Legal (solicitors') offices, governmental, historical and genealogical repositories in Ireland and abroad sent original records, transcripts, abstracts, and notes from the burned records, as gifts or on
loan for copying.
Genealogical collections representing the life work of great genealogists such as Betham, Crossle,
Groves, Sadleir, etc., were given or sold to this office.
Individuals by the hundreds sent collections of family documents covering several generations. Several hundred parish registers of baptism, marriage and burial, either original or transcripts, were in local custody at the time of the fire, and so were available.
One of the most valuable collections acquired, which for the genealogist, repaired the loss of the Prerogative Wills, is the great collection of 241 volumes of the Betham Genealogical Abstracts. Sir William Betham, Ulster King of Arms, filled 80 volumes of this collection with abstracts of about 37,000
Prerogative Wills, 1595-1800, which represented all that were proved in the Prerogative Court of Armagh during this period.
The other volumes were: Two of Kildare Wills, 1661-1826; 16 of Prerogative marriage licenses, 1629-1801; 56 of Prerogative administrations, 1595-1800; 4 of Prerogative marriage licenses, 1629-1800. The last 29 volumes are miscellaneous extracts from court records, pedigrees and
memoranda.
An indexed catalogue of the collection is in the Public Record Office. Besides these Betham Manuscripts,
there are 8 volumes of his letters dealing with his genealogical researches and memoranda and extracts on genealogical subjects and other important collections of manuscripts which are listed in the Fifty-Eighth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, pp. 26, 27.
As these great collections were being accumulated, indexed, and made available to the public, additional Reports were published which furnished this information to all who were interested. In 1926, The Fifty-Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, which had been prepared in
1922, was published. Between 1928-1936, with the publication of the Fifty-Fifth, Fifty-Sixth, and Fifty-Seventh Reports, and in 1951, the publication of the Fifty-Eighth Report, these Reports have served as immensely valuable catalogues for the genealogist, of the records now in the Public Record Office, Dublin. These may be found in most of the larger genealogical libraries of the United States.
There are also card catalogues, in the public search room, and typed indexes to various collections. The card index of testamentary documents is very extensive; it indexes many thousands of wills, duplicates and official plain copies of wills, grants of administrations, and original unproved wills never lodged for probate, which became too numerous after 1936 any longer to index in the Reports.
The Crossle Family Index, a very large collection, is the index to the Philip Crossle Manuscripts, consisting of family records, pedigrees, family notes, compiled genealogy, extracts from historical magazines, original miscellaneous records, abstracts of Chancery bills and Equity Exchequer bills and answers setting out family relationships, etc.
The Deeds index is a topographical card index to the deeds prior to the establishment of the Registry of Deeds in 1708. The enormous number of deeds received among family documents, running into thousands, also are indexed.
The Betham Manuscripts and many others, such as the Tenison Groves collection; the Swanzy genealogical abstracts of wills, administrations and marriage licenses for Prerogative Court, 1681-1846; the Monk Mason Manuscripts, being abstracts of inquisitions, Counties Dublin and Wicklow,
Henry IV to Charles II, also the Chichester House Claims (with notes on decisions), or before 10 August 1700; the Stewart Kennedy notebooks, which contain abstracts of Prerogative and Diocesan Wills; the Greene Manuscripts, being extracts from the Prerogative and Diocesan Wills, Grant Books, Parish Registers, and the Prim collection; are all indexed by the collection. Besides this, such collections as the
Diocesan Marriage License Bonds are preserved for the 26 dioceses in index form and are in the public search room.
