Susan Hood is the librarian and archivist at the Representative Church Body Library, situated in Churchtown in Dublin. The RCBL is the repository for the Church of Ireland (Anglican church) within the Republic of Ireland. It holds parish registers and vestry minute books for many (but not all) locations throughout the country, either in original form or on microfilm. As Susan mentions to Paul, the C of I’s records often include information relating to other denominations.
Susan has been familiar with genealogy and with family historians since her student days, when she gained experience doing summer work at the Genealogical Office. This led to her publication Royal Roots – Republican Inheritance (The Woodfield Press, Dublin, 2002), a history of the institution from the 1850s forward. Prior to 1943 it had been the Office of Arms.
Paul broaches the thorny question of post-Covid opening hours and Susan rises admirably to the challenge. They discuss how the RCBL publication of parish registers and older vestry minutes in book form, begun under Susan’s predecessor Raymond Refaussé, evolved into online publication of registers on the Church Records database on the Irishgenealogy.ie website and the RCBL’s own Archive of the Month. Susan also tells us what’s in the pipeline in relation to digitisation.
Series Producer: Conor O’Hagan
Audio Supervisor: Conor Cullen
Click to Listen
Link to the Representative Church Body Library: https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library
Link to RCBL Image of the Month: https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library/archive-of-the-month
