74 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Currently the best book of it's genre available!!!, May 12, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Book of Irish Families: Great & Small, Second Edition (Hardcover)
After evaluating the Book of Irish Families I conclude this is currently the best work of it's genre available. My claim to the legitimate training and credential of a professional researcher includes a graduate degree in History. A researcher's mandate is to publish original material versus rehashing existing efforts. Professional genealogists fall into this catagory. Measured according to this criteria, O'Laughlin's book clearly meets the standard. The book contains several hundred coats of arms not found elsewhere by this researcher. Many of these were officially sanctioned in the seventeenth century. The book also contains a similar number of surnames not found elsewhere.
As mentioned by previous reviewers, O'Laughlin's work depicts the coats of arms in black and white. Also, some of the drawings do appear amateurish. However, the serious researcher will discover this accurately reflects the original source material.
One measure of a researcher is the influence their efforts have on their chosen field of study. All strive for "seminal" works that stimulate others to research, confirm, deny or modify the results. In other words, they pave the ground so others may follow. O'Laughlin has retained his rightful place in this rare class of researchers. Internationally known and respected, he has written and published several seminal Irish genealogy studies. For over twenty years, his contributions to Irish studies have consistently broken new ground.
To be sure, O'Laughlin's volume does not have the "glitz and glamour" of some rival publications. For example, some competitors have published glossy volumes that include color pictures of the coats of arms. There is nothing wrong with this. Unfortunately, when subjected to critical evaluation, one sadly concludes that some of O'Laughlin's rivals have allowed a "marketing gimmick" to triumph over "research."
I confess to being very amused by some evaluations of O'Laughlin's work posted by some rival reviewers. I would advise one particular reviewer to regain their objectivity and consider the merit's of the book as a whole. For example, this rival reviewer may have a legitimate point about prominent Jewish names being left out. I also agree that an over reliance on older texts can raise a legitimate "red flag." However, as an old college math professor of mine once said, "If the value of Pi has not changed in centuries, who cares how old a reference book you copy it from?" My point is, if the family name origins and coat of arms are accurate, that is all that matters. Finally, I agree with my rival that serious researchers need a variety of resources from which to draw. However, many amateurs want a "one size fit all" solution. Fortunately, O'Laughlin's latest work meets the requirements for both audiences.
Budding and experienced researchers take note. One wonders is a future volume on prominent Jewish-Irish names would not be helpful in redressing one of the above mentioned perceived oversights.
For the reviewer from Massachusetts, some professional suggestions. A prominent aspect of reviewing is to :
1) Place 2) Grant 3) Criticize
The rival reviewer mentioned above provided lucid reasons why they felt the recent O'Laughlin offering was lacking. Another professional can respect the reviewers opinion, even if they disagree. However, to descend, or here perhaps to remain at a "tabloid" level like the Massachusetts author's review is degrading. To my New England colleague I offer the following advice. Have, or obtain, some intellectual underpinning for your opinion. The Massachusetts reviewer provides no analysis to support their conclusion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, absent a reasoned argument, no serious researcher, amateur or professional, will pay any attention to you.
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34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too Much Equals Too Little, March 2, 2002
This review is from: The Book of Irish Families: Great & Small, Second Edition (Hardcover)
I had high hopes for this book when I ordered it along with the author's books for Waterford and Cork. I was disappointed with all of them. In trying to create such an all-encompassing book, the author has published a work that fails to provide much information on any particular family. And he manages to leave out valuable information. For example, in his book "Families of County Cork" he gives a very short paragraph about the Sherlock family being there, but fails to mention in this "Irish Families" book that the family is found in Cork, even though the Cork book was published first.
The three books by the author that I purchased are probably good for those who are just starting out in tracing their families and do not know where to begin. It could probably help those who have struggled to find any info on their families. However, if you have done even a little research on your own and narrowed your focus to a particular part of Ireland, this book will not provide you much more if at all.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing but still useful, April 28, 1999
This review is from: The Book of Irish Families: Great & Small, Second Edition (Hardcover)
I have to say that I found this book a bit of a disappointment especially having read the author's comment "if you were to purchase just one book on Irish Families, I have written this work for you". In fact if this the only book you consult on Irish families you will be most upset. The book makes the mistake of trying to reinvent the wheel by cataloging families from old data sources. This has already been done, much better, by several other authors. For the most prominent families, this publication adds nothing to the existing knowledge base. It's attempt to include rare names is honorable, but the amount of information provided is scant, at best. For example, "The family of Mulvey is traditionally linked to Co. Leitrim and it has remained so in modern times" hardly does justice to this once great sept. The entries are also inconsistent, for some the Irish form of the name is included and for others it is not. I would have expected all of the old Gaelic names to have their Irish form included. The coats of arms are a real let down, not only are they in monochrome (colour is the essence of heraldry), but the quality of reproduction is poor. It would have been better to leave them out altogether. There are also quite a few errors and omissions (though the author does admit this at the start). One that stuck me was the list of Jewish-Irish names which omits the most famous of all, Briscoe. A look at the entry for Briscoe shows no mention of the family's Jewish heritage, despite the fact that at least members of the family have had high political profiles in Dublin. The book claims Flaherty and Laverty as the same name and while this is true in terms of their root word origin in Irish, the names are racially quite distinct. In another case the book fails to link the two names Haughey and Haffey. I found the book too heavily reliant on "Keating's History", which while excellent, is far from the only source available. Another off-putting aspect is the fact that the names are not listed in proper alphabetical order and names beginning with "B" crop up among the "A's" and so on. On the plus side, the book does include a lot of information and it is not expensive as such publications go. In short, this is not a book for one-name researchers but should be on the shelves of all with a general interest in Irish names.
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