Family research company Irish World has republished an e-book edition of ‘Heather, Peat and Stone’, a definitive guide to the parishes and town-lands of County Tyrone. It has done so in conjunction with Canadian company Ulster Heritage, based in Ontario.
Anyone who has ever searched for their Ulster roots will appreciate the value of knowing something about the many territorial divisions, place-names and spellings they will encounter. Being able to navigate this maze of locations and names in search of ancestral connections is an important first step on any genealogical voyage. Sometimes, the name of a village or town-land is the only clue as to where an ancestor might have originated. If we can identify the place and link it to a parish, we are on the way to discovering which church or civil records might reveal more information about our past.
Originally published in 1992, Heather, Peat and Stone has over 160 pages and contains clear maps of every civil parish and Catholic parish in the county, with the town-lands numbered and named on each one. It was the first time that both types of maps had been available in the same format, and the book proved very popular with people of Tyrone origin worldwide. The original print-run soon sold out and in response to repeated requests, it was felt the time was right for re-publication – this time as an e-book. The e-book is an exact facsimile of the original A4 edition and is easily navigated with a built-in word-search facility. Editor, Willie O’Kane, said that people from across the world had found the book a great starting point for their ancestral research and had fired their enthusiasm for finding out more about Tyrone and Ulster in general.
Heather, Peat and Stone also seeks to convey a sense of the wider culture of Tyrone, so there are sections on folklore, history and topography, together with extracts from writings about the county. Tyrone has been well served by its fine writers and poets, and the publishers have sought to bring their voices into the mix so that the reader will encounter a range of the flavours associated with this historic county. The foreword, by the renowned Tyrone poet John Montague who died in early 2017, adds a note of richness and poignancy to the book.
Heather, Peat and Stone is priced at $12.95 (Canadian) and can be obtained direct from Ulster Heritage as a downloadable, fully searchable PDF file. Simply go to www.cotyroneireland.com/estore/index.php and download a copy.