Building Island Futures with Heritage-Based Tools: Archival Records from Inishark and Inishbofin, Co. Galway, Ireland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Making Historical Archaeology Matter: Rethinking an Engaged Archaeology of Nineteenth- to Twenty-First-Century Rural Communities of Western Ireland and Southern Italy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries under British rule, tax assessors, census takers, and Church personnel routinely recorded key aspects of the lives of Inishark and Inishbofin islanders. This research investigates house-by-house village histories through valuation records, historic maps, and baptism and wedding records. Using these documents, we seek to create village maps showing where families lived through time, and to share these findings with today’s islanders. Our research uncovers many stories that are concealed in government archives. We seek to reunite these stories and records with the families whose descendants we work with today. In this ongoing process of reclaiming and mapping out local knowledge, we are working to establish a local archive of these records and our research results to be housed in the Inishbofin library. Ultimately, this research contributes towards islanders' efforts to connect with their pasts and build their futures.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Making Historical Archaeology Matter: Rethinking an Engaged Archaeology of Nineteenth- to Twenty-First-Century Rural Communities of Western Ireland and Southern Italy   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38796.0