Available on Amazon |
Bandon, County Cork. A Social History of North Main Street and Kilbrogan Hill, by Catherine FitzMaurice, focuses on a part of town once filled with tanneries, malt houses, shoemakers, harness makers and publicans. However, a major transformation took place in the 1700s when English settlers moved in. Industry moved out and the street became primarily residential, filled with a predominantly Protestant population.
The 420-page paperback (ISBN 978151508153) focuses on the families who lived and worked in the area and would be a useful tool for those researching their ancestors who came from the town. Some of the familiar Bandon settler surnames – Bennett, Fuller, Hunter, Appelbe, Lee, Loane, Williams, Robinson, Clear, Baldwin, Burchill, Tresilian and Teulon – feature in the book as residents or lease holders. The study additionally explores the immense influence of the Devonshire Estate as far as it related to the street.
Catherine FitzMaurice is also the author of The Tresilian Family of County Cork: Landowners and Bandon Merchants, which was published two years ago, and a co-founder of the excellent website Bandon-Genealogy.com. This free site intends to help those researching ancestors in the town and its surrounding area, and I can give it a personal recommendation as it helped me greatly when I was researching one of my Santry branches. I remember in particular being incredibly grateful to the site's creators for providing details of street name changes, without which I'd probably never have found the family's home and location of their butcher shop.
Both Catherine's books are available on Amazon.