Gracie >Ireland / New Sources / 1912 / ulstercovenantsearch
Gracie >Ireland / New Sources / 1912 / ulstercovenantsearch
Claimed as a new ‘on-line database that should make a significant contribution to both genealogical research and cultural tourism’, the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland (PRONI) has produced a database for the signatories of the Ulster Covenant and Declaration made in 1912. You can look it up on www.proni.gov.uk/ulstercovenantsearch/.What follows below is a 5 page exploration and review of this new site by a Gracey interested in the surname Gracey Gracie and Gracy.
In 1912, among the Irish ‘Gracey’ adult population, some 321 adults (male and female), felt strongly threatened by a proposed Home Rule for Ireland Bill.So strongly threatened that they put their signatures and some form of address to a document called for males ‘Covenant’ referred to as the Ulster Covenant, and a similar one for females called ‘Declaration’.Of these 321 signatories, the spelling was 305 Gracey, 3 Gracie, and 13 Gracy.
So what does this PRONI database of the Ulster Covenant Archive offer us family historians?
I have never had any objection to publishing political history and, I suspect the Graceys were not unknown among the United Irishmen or Young Irelanders. But I have not been able to discover their membership.This archive is the equivalent of a membership list of unionists, rejecting home rule in Ireland, and thus one can explore some of the Gracey stance at that time.
I used this new PRONI site a week ago and have been on line every since. It has taken me that long to balance where it stands in the hierarchy of the“most wanted” on-line family history resource for Northern Ireland or part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland from PRONI.I regret to say it doesn’t come in as the vital priority.That position must be held by the unpublished 1901 Census of Ireland, with the detail wanted for Ulster, and at worse for the 6 counties. The census information would contain the exact household location, all those living in the household with their relationships, ages, occupations, religious persuasions and much more. See my appendix below if interested.
Next I considered what would existing 1912 street directories offer us family historians instead of this database of Covenanters.It would only be comparable if the street directory information was put onto a database and so indexed and put online. Now that would probably come outside the terms of PRONI unless they had a manuscript archive version. A Street directory normally contains a single householder name normally male sometimes initials only, and street address. Collectively it doesn’t represent the whole population and hasn’t anything to do with politics, nevertheless it is showing every household.For family history purposes, I would have used this indexed street directory database first if available, and then out of interest the PRONI- UC site. Indeed there must have been heavy use of street directories, to help identify and transcribe surnames and addresses from the Ulster Covenant Archive. Both are second choice to a census. A census of course gives no political information at all.The nearest census ie the 1911 edition and this could be available online in 8 years, but really who would believe me after finding out about the present POSITION of the 1901 Census. See my appendix below if interested.
The website is well set out and easy to use.The headings used are Introduction, Background, Covenant Trail, Preparations, Ulster Day, Aftermath, Search, Search - Hints & Tips, Data Amendments.
The Introduction says: - “The archive of the Ulster Unionist Council, held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), contains just under half a million original signatures and addresses of the men who, on 28 September 1912, signed the Ulster Covenant, and of the women who signed the parallel Declaration. In total, the Covenant was signed by 237,368 men, and the Declaration by 234,046 women.”Elsewhere it says: - “Previously the Covenant was difficult and very time-consuming to access and, consequently, it was under-used. PRONI has now improved access by digitising all the signatures, in recognition that the on-line database should make a significant contribution to both genealogical research and cultural tourism.”This statement made me ill at ease initially. I certainly didn’t agree with it when starting to explore the site, and you will find me coming back to its very desirable claim from time to time.
So I opened the Search Request option, put in Gracey as surname, left the forename blank, and the other headings as ‘All’, and altered the entries per page to the maximum of 150. What appears if you have more than 150 entries is a first “page” that when printed as A4, will make about 6 pages of A4. So after I had printed the “3” pages containing 305 entries I had 13 A4 pages of small print. Along the top of all pages is the summary quantity of entries found.I did the same for Gracie and had 3 entries, and finished with 13 for Gracy. Making a 15-page resource. I was impressed finding 321 entries for Gracey, knowing there was still the treat? of seeing the signature reproductions.
Then I wondered what was the total population of Graceys in 1912 Ireland, the 321 signatories are adults only, allow for children, lets say 650 plus. So what about the Graceys who didn’t sign, how many existed in total? The nearest census 1911 won’t be available for 8 years, my nearest population source is a copy of Burke’s Peerage World book of Gracey, c.Halbert’s Family Heritage 1997, which has registered households as 317 for all of Ireland, but allows for estimates of 444 and total population in all Ireland as 1110.Compared to estimated populations of 1428 in Great Britain including Scotland, or to the 3227 in North America (USA 2389, Canada 838). So using these figures one might suggest two thirds of the adult Graceys probably signed.Certainly not 100%.
The information gleaned varies; here is an example of one row. 1st column. Surname Gracey, 2nd column Forename Eleanor, 3rd column Address 71 Wynne Terrace, Edward Street, Lurgan, 4th column Parliamentary Division Armagh North, 5th column District Lurgan, 6th column Place of signing Lurgan, 7th column Agent Armstrong, N.The final 8/9/10/11 columns in colour invite you to view the signature.As an average entry this particular row is unusual having such a full address.
I experimented with the search engine a little.If you try wild cards like Grac*, I picked up 340 entries in full, including Grace, Gracar, Gracken, Gracham Grass.With Gre*, I found Gressly (but I was hoping to find a Greacey or Grecy etc. I had a last look for Gras*, and found Grass again but no Grassie. I had expected more variations in surname spelling.
Having been impressed with the number of Graceys found, I tried a few other SURNAMES, eg Allen 1815 entries, Bamber 19, Bunting 246, Corkey 29, Goligher 54, Killen 103, McCoy 251, McKee 1566, Marner nil, Moore 3414, O’Driscoll nil, Tannahill 33, Whitla 36. Again I wondered what was the total population of each surname, and the total number possible of signatories.
I scrolled down Forenames.All the usual names were there, I noted some less common ones: - Abbey, Bella, Essie, Gemima, Haliday, Harrison, Hughina, Jinnie, Lascinna, Meta, Selina, Shephard, Syanley, Tillie, and Wellesley. (Re Harrison Gracey, I mention Harrison , transferred to a Gracey. only in its prior use as a surname. In August 1969 the Portadown papers sought the missing heirs of the millions of a Valentine Harrison estate with the Gracey surname involved, however it appears unsupported in London Court Funds. If it existed in New Zealand court funds, I’m sure we would have heard about it.)
The Address column was a little disappointing because many of the signatories often just gave a district.A full address would have brought this archive into a useful statistical tool, but it can’t do it. The search engines copes well searching, egthe address boxshowing 71 Wynne Terrace, Edward Street, Lurgan will certainly turn up under searches for 1.Wynne terrace, 2. Edward St, and 3. Lurgan. I didn’t check the House number.
The next column Parliamentary Division is weird. Scroll down it, and you are rewarded with headings for Australia, Canada, China, Malta, United States of America, Wales, etc.A second look shows England has 60 sub headings, Scotland has 18.Using a wild card surname, I looked up the quantity of signatories in the 5 headings for Tyrone, they totalled 37,729. In the county of Donegal, there were 8048.Using the same wild card trick, I got no entries for China, and 23 for USA.
Again the next column heading The Districts has only 30 headings. Is it weird to anyone else. Is it me?Those headings include Mossley, Raloo, Scotland – Lanarkshire, Dirraw.I would guess Raloo is an Irish district.
I explored these divisions and districts a little more. Eleven Graceys signed in England and Scotland.I looked to see how many Graceys signed in the 26 counties outside the 6 counties that became Northern Ireland. My Gracey grandparents lived in Dunfanaghy, Co.Donegal, but apparently didn’t sign, and moved to Helens Bay, Co Down, later. I tracked down just one Gracey signature living in Co.Monaghan.
I looked up one or two Gracey queries I have come across in the last year or two. I got a match forKilmegan, here an Elizabeth and Mary Gracey of Dundrum House signed but 1912 is late, but still interesting for that American Gracey. Another shows 6 Gracey adults signed in Ballinran nr Kilkeel. That set me hunting where else an overcrowding took place within one address or small place. So Banogen of Donacloney had 8,Shillington St.Portadown had 7, as did Castlewellan.6 plusfor the Carnew/Drumnacairne (A hot spot for some Banbridge Graceys).Moving to the largest concentrations as expected apart from Belfast, the majority fell in the area Lurgan to Portadown.
The Places where the signing took place, were: - town halls, local halls, court houses, parochial halls, Orange halls, mission halls and the Scriptural school, Newry. Then come groups with slight distinctions, the church Vestry and rectory, Seagoe churchyard sounded unusual, and finally the individual churches themselves. The worst spelling mistake I found was possibly ‘Lucture Hall’, until my ear remembered how some say it.
The Agents, who conducted the signing sessions, must make up a study alone for somebody politically minded. Many were women, very few appeared to be professionally titled people eg One of the few was the Countess of Kilmorey, otherwise I found just one Police? Sergeant, and one clergyman.
Which brings me back to SEX, Women signed what is called a parallel declaration. This archive shows as many female as men were involved, a quarter of a million of both. I presume other than for suffragette movements, never have so many female signatories been collected before in world history?Comparethese irish females to america females. Its too difficult for me to do, but various alliances Daughters of the Revolution, DAR, Daughters of the Confederacy, DAC? Did spring up and remained faithful to the ideals that people had fought and died for. I don’t know about the religious background. I also don’t know about the Daughters of the Empire Loyalists faithful to Britain who may have migrated to Canada.
Collectively this signing of the Ulster Covenant and declaration by over half a million people gave additional power to those who wanted their support. The words of the covenant and parallel text are on this website, clearly labelled MEN, & WOMEN. The future formation of Northern Ireland was based upon that response, at that time. Anyway I’m back into politics, and will leave that to historians.
Of closer impact to me, I wondered how many of these signatories died serving in the Ulster Division in WW1. (eg the Portadown War memorial or Commonwealth Graves etc.,are both online.)The answer is far too many. For the record my father’s platoon decimated at the Somme was made up of volunteer soldiers with several religious denominations including Protestants and Catholics. He brought me up to respect their differing beliefs and to commemorate them all equally as Irishmen.
The Ulster Covenant is reverred as a protestant event. So presumably the Graceys who signed are all protestants or mainly protestants. The census would allow a breakdown of the 100? differentreligious persuasions to be studied.It would be interesting to find out if any of the catholic Gracey families of that time signed. So again I come back to the preferred census as the priority, rather than an incomplete religious study that could lead to misconclusions.
The Graphic Treat.
So I come lastly to the silver lining of the index, over half a million digitised SIGNATORIES. These signatures, are available for study by anybody. Handwriting experts should have a field-day. I wondered about the literacy standards of the Irish or Ulster people in 1912, and yes quickly found a possible relative Davidhis-X-markMcMillen, in Comber.The wording around the X, presumably filled in by the agent collecting the signatures. The website was getting to me.
A signature is a very personal thing. I remembered growing up and coming back to it time and time again until satisfied in my late teens.My own starting capital G is an open G, was I the only eccentric Gracey.I wondered how many would have their handwriting traced to Vere Foster’s copy books ie handwriting exercises that Ulster Publisher, Marcus Ward published, using joined up copperplate handwriting exercises.Some family history delight in having a signature of one’s past relative, demonstrating a more personal touch, and so will welcome this very expensive section.I was not welcoming, its not my scene, anyway I really didn’t really want to bother looking up old signatures. However to complete this review fairly, I decided I must.
My own Gracey line ceased its association with Ballyaltikilligan near Comber about 1907, so some 5 years before 1912, there are no surname entries for the townland, so I selected Comber and refined myself to Gracey. The result was 3 entries (One was an Edmund Gracey, who might be brand new relative.)I clicked on extreme right column button and bingo up came an image of the Covenant sheet with its signatures. It was easy to find the Gracey entry on three different sheets, my astonishment grew!I slowly realised that all three signatures showed sufficient stylistic similarity to my fathers and more importantly my grandfathers signatures, that who knows, I may be in the process of knocking down another brick wall fortification! You may ask me to take back some of my harsher viewpoints above, I do, and certainly will have to reconsider my prejudices.
CONCLUSIONS: - This is a most useful index to have on line, and I congratulate PRONI for so well producing it from awkward data.No matter the political nature of its source, which made me initially ill at ease, I can’t do without it in the meantime.Having said that sincerely, as a family historian in the meantime, I also sincerely wish to say I had assumed the top priority for PRONI,(in family history online terms to its actual whole community of six counties ie Northern Ireland), hadto be, the 1901 Census, covering the 6 counties of what’s now Northern Ireland, or next best but awkward territorially for PRONI, the 9 counties of Ulster.
Appendix.The past appalling census scene and an uptodatepolitical gesture perhaps?
Quickly noting what’s available in England by comparison, I find yes the census papers have been kept since 1841.So isnt England lucky, with presumably all the 1851, 1861,1871,1881, 1891,and 1901 Censuses existing.As you all know the English Public Record Office has digitised the 1901 census of England and Wales, and the later has been most successfully launched on line even it is sometimes slow etc. In seconds today I looked up three named Gracey, the summary detail listed that comes back includes a ‘where born’ column. So for James Gracey, you have 10 entries, of which 5 have irish backgrounds, John 6 out of 15, and one William out of 11, so there are 12 Graceys who will not be in the irish census. Of these 12 the description for 8 was Ireland, leaving 1 from Sligo, 1 from Newry, 1 from Down, 1 from Belfast.
The position for Ireland is very different and can never be restored, the appalling story of how the census of Ireland were treated is well covered in Sean J Murphy’sMemorandum on the fate of the destroyed Returns of the Census of Ireland 1861-91. See http://homepage.tinet.ie/~seanjmurphy/nai/censusmemohttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~seanjmurphy/nai/censusmemo.The same scandal in England would have roasted Westminster and caused immediate sackings of several individuals. Please read Sean’s paper and judge his comments for yourselves. The later civil war event at the Dublin Four Courts in June 1922 destroyed the 1821-51 census. Nevertheless…
So Ireland, pre 1921, is left with a few census scraps before 1900, and two surviving census, the 1901, and 1911 census. (The 1911 is still too recent falling within the 100-year state paper umbrella.)So Ireland has only available this ONE SURVIVING FULL CENSUS for us family historians.
One full Census available to go online!But it is now 2003, What has happened to it?Sean Murphy hoped unsuccessfully that the Irish Government in Dublin would find funds to get it on line. Surely international academics studying the social sciences in Ireland must bring their influence to insist the work should be done quickly. Could the funding necessary be extended across existing borders!Could it be further extended into the private region where non-returnable grants ie funds be raised from the emigrant Irish by professional fundraisers would be used. However please be extra careful, family history can be an extortion racket, the end result must be free to the people who ancestors supplied that information. Otherwise scrap record offices!Please let us have the 1901 census for Ireland ASAP, if that is not possible, please ask the politicians to unite behind the management of PRONI to expedite a 6 county extract for their online site, to led the way for the rest of Ireland. (County Down is lucky in that the heads of households have been listed on Caora.com, but even that is only a glimpse of the top of the iceberg of data.)
Supposing we had the census, it could be the final nut in place for numerous traditional family trees, and so more family reunions, and also surname reunions and a further growth for the Tourist Industry. Has the time come yet for all politicians to reach out together, showing their collective humanity of being family proud, and to start showing the rest of us how to hold a manageable surname reunion. (PRONI or UHS to offer help).Then in no time, think of groups of cousins, or just same surnamed individuals, like Trimble, Paisley, Allardice, Taylor, Adams, Magennis, you name them (and don’t forget Kennedy, Wilson, Clinton etc,) all flying in for their reunion parties even on the same day.The art of a good family surname reunion, is the wisdom that encompasses all ones ancestors, and that must include any descendants of those that signed the Ulster Covenant, and those that didn’t! So are there any invitations going spare for a family surname reunion?
Jim