Читать книгу Collins Tracing Your Irish Family History - Ryan Tubridy, Anthony Adolph - Страница 30

The first great national biographical dictionary was the Dictionary of National Biography, whose initial editor was Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), father of the novelist Virginia Woolf. The project began in 1882, encompassing the whole of the British Isles, thus including much Irish material: in fact, the first person under ‘A’ is Jacques Abbadie, the Huguenot dean of Killaloe, Co. Clare. Since then, most countries have produced biographical dictionaries. For small or newlyemerged states, such publications have become important symbols of nationhood. Biographical dictionaries also exist for many fields of endeavour – painters, architects, naval officers and so on, and for smaller geographical areas, such as counties, provinces and cities.

Some dictionaries were very selective, but many, aimed at widest possible sales, including almost anyone involved in business, local politics, the professions and arts. Most state date and place of birth, so are often useful as genealogical tools. Many Irish migrants who made successes of themselves often appear in local biographical dictionaries, with their places of origin clearly stated.