Wicklow County Archives in collaboration with the Courthouse Arts Centre and Trinity College Dublin present the Coolattin Lives website, containing the tenant records for the Earl of Fitzwilliam’s estates in County Wicklow, and Wicklow County Archives digitised collections of Grand Jury and Workhouse records.
Tenant records
The Coolattin Lives site contains the tenant records for the Earl of Fitzwilliam’s estates in County Wicklow between 1841 and 1868. This period includes the Great Famine and the years of assisted migration that the Fitzwilliam estate put in place to encourage tenants to move to Canada, so it captures a moment of great change in the population – locally and nationally. In Coolattin Lives thousands of tenant records have been transcribed, digitised and mapped allowing descendants of these tenants – in Ireland, Canada and around the world – to trace their ancestors, find the district where they lived, and make their way back to the family home place.
Wicklow County Archives collections
Wicklow County Archives Service digitised resources of Grand Jury and Workhouse records are also available on the Coolattin Lives site, providing a unique layering of records from 1818 up to 1900.
Trinity College Dublin
This project has been founded and supervised by The Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely. The project coordinator is Professor Ciaran Brady, Dept of History, TCD, (who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Courthouse Arts Centre), and the research was completed by Dr Ciaran Wallace, Dept of History, TCD. Indeed, this project ensured that the records have been transcribed and made available for online research.
Contributors and sponsors
The Courthouse Arts Centre is indebted to the earlier pioneering research of Jim Rees and Ann Hanley. Sponsors of the project are Lord Haskins of Yorkshire Foods PLC; Sir Naylor-Leyland, Fitzwilliam Estate; Neil McHugh of Green Isle Foods: School of History & Humanities TCD and Wicklow County Tourism.
The project is also indebted to his Excellency Ambassador Kevin Vickers, Embassy of Canada, for his patronage and support.
