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Do you have a
Jameson connection in your family
history? Check for free during the month
of July at Ancestry.com
If you have ever wondered if you have a
historic family connection with Jameson
Irish whiskey or perhaps you are aware
of a connection and you would like some
more detail then you are in luck as
Irish Distillers, producer of Jameson as
well as some of the world’s best loved
Irish whiskeys, and Ancestry, the global
leader in family history, are working
together to share 100 years of Jameson
employee records online.
The historic Jameson Distillery Bow
Street records, which are part of the
Irish Distillers archive, contain
detailed weekly wages books and include
the employee names, as well as
occupation, hours worked, and wages
paid, spanning over 100 years from 1862
to 1969 (with records holding personal
information available to view until
1937. The collection, which contains
over one million indexed records, is now
available to search on Ancestry and will
be FREE OF CHARGE to access for the
month of July.
The records belong to Irish Distillers
and the digitisation project with
Ancestry will make them accessible to
the public for the first time.
Every bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey
features an emblem known as the
‘Barrelman’ which was first produced
almost 100 years ago and symbolises the
passion and team effort that goes into
making every bottle of whiskey. The
Jameson Distillery at Bow Street closed
as an operational distillery in Dublin
in the 1970s and production moved to
Midleton, but today, the lives of its
‘Barrelmen’ can be explored through
these digitised wage books – a potential
treasure trove of information for those
researching their Irish family history.
Additionally, the records show further
insight into life in Ireland within the
period covered. During the Easter Rising
in 1916, the distillery on Bow Street
was taken over by the rebels which meant
no staff could get to work. By law, that
meant the employer did not have to pay
them. However, there is a note in the
wage book to say: ‘Rebellion in Dublin,
all employees paid full week’.
 Carol Quinn, Archivist at Irish
Distillers said: "We are incredibly
proud to partner with Ancestry and bring
these archives to a global public
audience for the first time. These
records are important for many reasons,
but mainly because for many listed in
the earlier volumes, there is no other
surviving administrative record of their
lives. Civil registration of births only
began in 1864, so many may not have had
birth certificates, and later records
were destroyed in the bombing of the
Four Courts in 1922."
"While the archive is an internal
resource for Irish Distillers and is not
open to the public, I have always tried
to answer any genealogical query that I
receive. However, physically looking
through the volumes – some of which are
half a metre in size – isn’t good for
the longevity of the records and leads
to damage. Thanks to Ancestry and the
team who came to Midleton to digitise
the volumes, all of the records are
available online and people can look up
the records themselves and find out if
their relatives worked at Jameson
Distillery Bow Street and what their
working life was like."
Rhona Murray, Senior Content Acquisition
Manager from Ancestry adds: "Occupation
records can be a key resource for those
researching their family history as they
often provide more detail and context on
how their ancestors lived day-to-day.
The Jameson Distillery Staff Wage and
Employment Books are particularly
important as they bring to life a time
when the Jameson distillery played a
vital role providing employment for the
local community – and potentially your
ancestors - in Dublin City. We are
delighted to be working with Irish
Distillers to preserve and provide
online public access to this valuable
collection, for people in Ireland and
those with Irish heritage all around the
world."
Records in the collection span from
1862-1969, but in compliance with the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),
records that hold personal details are
only available to view up to 1937, to
protect the privacy of any living
people.
If you want to check if you have any
Jameson in your family history visit
www.ancestry.com or if you
want a bit more Jameson in you then you
will find Irish Distillers current
portfolio of whisky including the
current Jameson whiskey range available
from specialist online whisky retailers
such as
The Whisky Exchange and
Master of Malt
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