Roll Books and Registers

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Written evidence about schools

Schools keep details about pupils and children who attend them. Sometimes there are roll books and registers which survive from schools long ago. These are useful for tracing the history of the school because they list when children attended the school and their names.

Discussion Time!

Discuss with your class mates what else do you think might registers tell us about children in the past?

Now take a look below at the school register from 1897.

......................................................................Register from 1897

(All registers and roll books are courtesy of the Plunkett School of Irish Education, The Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines, Dublin.)

Flash

School Register 1897

School Register 1897

How reliable is written evidence?

Do you think the information in a school register would give true information or might it be made up? Why do you think so?

We know that National Schools run by the government began in Ireland in 1831-32. The new schools had to keep records of children who attended them.

Who might have needed to check the school registers and why?
Who might have asked a school to check the register?

Flash

Checking the school register

Checking the school register