Today is World Quaker Day. I’ve spent a lot of time studying the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland. Their records are phenomenal. So much so that I chose to write my Masters dissertation on them. The woman below is Dinah Wilson Goff (1783-1858), youngest member of a family who had 18 children. There are records of birth and death for almost every member of the family. Dinah wrote a memoir of her traumatic experiences in the 1798 Rebellion, when her family was held hostage by rebels for two weeks. You can read it on the Internet Archive.
Friday’s episode of RTÉ’s magazine show Nationwide was devoted to Quakers. They broadcast from Waterford, Dublin and Portlaw. You can watch the episode on the RTÉ player.
The Quaker influence on Ireland is really disproportionate to the size of their community. Bewleys, Jacobs & Goodbodys are all businesses still in existance originally founded by a Quaker family. Their impact during the Great Famine was huge too, organising famine relief and giving out food. Later, they became involved with the Temperance movement and the ultimately successful campaign to abolish slavery.
If you are a member of Legacy Familytree Webinars, then you can watch my talk on Irish Quaker records. If you’re not a member, you’re missing out. Many Irish Quaker records are available on FindMyPast but there’s a lot of duplication and the context is often omitted to explain why. If you do find Irish Quakers in your ancestry, then you’ll likely be able to take that line back at least a century earlier than other Irish ancestors. We should all be so lucky.