Module Code - Title:
HI2102
-
HISTORY OF FAMILY II: MIGRATION AND COMMUNITIES
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
The aim of this module is to introduce students to concepts, sources and approaches to the study of family history, in the context of migratory patterns and community formation, to enable the student to contextualise and corroborate their family history research projects.
The confines of a familys immediate locality defined their identity. Families were educated, employed and entertained within boundaries demarcated by geography, religious and civil authorities, and themselves. Equally, students will be trained to examine the factors and characteristics of Irish demographic movement in order to test the theories and explanations that historians, sociologists and geographers have offered. In addition, students will be expected to examine and critically evaluate primary source material, including emigrant letters and diaries, newspapers, official papers, census records and other material.
Syllabus:
As well as emigration from Ireland the module will examine immigration into Ireland, looking at such groups as Huguenots, Dutch, Palatines the Jews. These small-scale migrations had an economic, social and political impact on the localities that they settled.
Class and ethnic boundaries often tended to separate families into distinctive groups. The module examines this predominantly through the Irish context. To what extent was religion a factor in defining class? How do historians measure social mobility (upwards and downwards) of families? How did the Irish middle classes establish themselves in the modern period? By the end of the module students will have the capacity to answer these questions.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module a student will:
Contextualise oral history testimony within the master narrative of Irish history.
Evaluate clearly the contribution of history of family testimony to community formation and migratory trends.
Integrate family history and memory with existing primary documentary sources as well as secondary sources.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
N/A
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
M. Drake, (ed.) (1994)
Time, Family and Community. Perspectives on Family and Community History
, Cambridge
M. Drake and R. Finnegan, (eds.) (1994)
Studying Family and Community History Vol. 3 Communities and Families
, Cambridge
P. Fitzgerald and B. Lambkin (2009)
Migration in Irish History, 1607 ¿ 2007
, London
Other Relevant Texts:
Guinnane, T.W. (1997)
The Vanishing Irish
, Princeton
Kerby A. Miller (2008)
Ireland and Irish America: Culture, Class, and Transatlantic Migration
, Field Day Publications
Kerby A. Miller and Patricia Mulholland Miller (2001)
Journey of Hope: The Story of Irish Immigration to America
, San Francisco
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
David.Butler@ul.ie