Several people who are listed on this page died in 1847, possibly from famine or famine-related illness. Others had emigrated to England or America.

It is difficult to track down who emigrated from this area, and where they went to. One useful source, is the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund, records which include a survey of the whereabouts and circumstances of those who owed money to local loan associations in 1853. Skibbereen does not seem to have had its own loan association but nearby Schull did.

Estate Records of the Irish Famine. A Second Guide to Famine Archives 1840-1855 ed. Andres Eiriksson and Corma o Grada (Dublin, 1995) and Records of the Irish Famine. A Guide to Local Archives 1840-55 ed. Deidre Lindsay and David Fitzpatrick (Dublin, 1997) are invaluable guides to local sources.

Official Government records held in the National Archives, such as the letter books of the local Cork military commissariat depot, often deal with the impersonal administration of relief, distribution of soup kitchens, arrival of ships carrying food supplies and such like, rather than the tragedy of human suffering.

Home Office files contain reports from local officials, such as the Constabulary report of December 1845, that one third of the crop had failed and how government recommendations on storing the crop in 'newly constructed safety pits' were being promoted (HO 45/1080 C).

Statistics include a return of paupers in workhouses in the last week of November 1846 - noting how many were sick, compared with the same week in 1844 - (HO 45/1080 A). The Famine Relief papers of Sir Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, in the National Archives class 'T 64', a selection of which are available on this site, are a rich source that has never been listed in detail.

The National Archives also hold some personal papers of John Russell, who was Prime Minister from July 1846 to February 1851, which contain correspondence relating to Ireland, notably in PRO/22/6B and PRO/22/5D. Include records of the temporary Relief Commission (RLFC record group) which was established in November 1845 to co-ordinate famine relief and food distribution. It received reports from lieutenants of counties, resident magistrates, poor law guardians, the constabulary and the coast guard, which were used to calculate the probable extent of food shortages. By August 1846, some 650 local relief committees had been established, mainly in the south and west. Some RLFC series are searchable on its website by place-name. For example, RLFC2/Z17602 is a six-page Constabulary report on the potato crop from Skibbereen and Bantry, Co Cork in December 1845. The National Archives website also includes a Guide to Sources for the Great Famine.

For some areas, Irish Reproductive Loan Fund records are an important source of genealogical, social and economic information that has been little used in the past. After the famine of 1822, surplus charitable donations were made available to local loan societies in the counties that had been worst affected - Limerick, Cork, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Tipperary. In 1853, after the British Treasury had assumed responsibility for these funds, it was decided to call in outstanding loans. The local police constable submitted detailed returns, townland by townland, reporting on the debtors - who was still in the area, who had died, and who had emigrated.

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