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About The Wrindex
The Wrindex opens a window
on early San Francisco citizens, Irish societies, and the voluntarism
practiced in early San Francisco. Largely drawn from newspapers of the day, it
provides a link to a uniquely contemporaneous view of events unobscured by revisionism.
Over 560,000 line items were compiled by reviewing a private
family collection of microfilm editions of early San Francisco newspapers, copies of
selected files from the California State Archives in Sacramento, books in the
private library, and some items in the family collection of memorabilia. The names of
individuals mentioned in these materials were posted to The Wrindex with a brief listing
of the activity which generated a listing in the publication, and with the name and date
of the publication where the full article or listing may be found.
The period covered by this indexing begins with the earliest
issues of the source publications held, and continues to 1906, with
Leader listings to 1927. To keep the size of the
task within manageable limits, the indexing was confined to societies in San Francisco.
The over 2,300 "Irish societies" that are
referenced in The Wrindex are defined as all organizations, clubs, militias,
associations, societies, parishes, sodalities, schools, leagues, teams, institutions, ad
hoc committees, alliances, brotherhoods, military units, councils, circles, institutes,
unions (other than labor unions), confraternities, conventions, guilds, conferences,
confederations, orders, bureaus and other combinations formed to accomplish objectives
best attained with the strength of numbers. Most political organizations and labor unions
have generally been omitted or only partially indexed. When most of the names
mentioned in connection with a society are Gaelic Irish or Norman Irish, that society is
considered an Irish society at that time. An organization may have started as mostly
Irish, and then changed over time. Thus, many of the organizations listed in Wrindex
as "Irish Societies" were de facto Irish Societies.
The family holding the library from which the listings are drawn
is descendent from Captain Michael J. Wrin, a San Francisco businessman who was one of the most active organizers of
Irish societies in early San Francisco. His biography appears in IRISH CALIFORNIANS:
Historic, Benevolent, Romantic by Patrick J. Dowling, 1998, Scotwall
Associates. (Now available
here)
Please Note: Wrindex can not be considered a
complete record of the times, or a complete index of anything. It is simply a directory,
compiled at the discretion of the person posting in the entries, of the archives in a
private library. Seemingly duplicative and redundant information has not been
referenced. Also, numerous issues are missing from microfilmed newspaper
collections. References to information which might be considered marginal are
omitted to keep the size of the record from exceeding the capacities of normal computers.
Much of this material was newspaper accounts, which often contain misspellings of
names or incorrectly stated items; these were posted in as published. (The Wrin family
itself found its name spelled five or six different ways.) And of course any project of
this magnitude will contain data entry errors, etc. Wrindex is an actual
working index of a private research library, and has not been refined for purposes of
publication. It is a practical working tool, but not a source document itself.
| The Wrindex About The Wrindex
The Wrindex opens a window on early San
Francisco citizens, Irish societies, and the volunteer movement of early San Francisco.
Largely drawn from newspapers of the day, it provides a link to a uniquely contemporaneous
view of events unobscured by revisionism.
Over 560,000 line items were compiled by reviewing a private
family collection of microfilm editions of early San Francisco newspapers, copies of
selected files from the California State Archives in Sacramento, books in the
private library, and some items in the family collection of memorabilia. The names of
individuals mentioned in these materials were posted to The Wrindex with a brief listing
of the activity which generated a listing in the publication, and with the name and date
of the publication where the full article or listing may be found.
The period covered by this indexing begins with the earliest
issues of the source publications held, and continues to 1906, with
Leader listings to 1927. To keep the size of the
task within manageable limits, the indexing was confined to societies in San Francisco.
The over 2,300 "Irish societies" that are
referenced in The Wrindex are defined as all organizations, clubs, militias,
associations, societies, parishes, sodalities, schools, leagues, teams, institutions, ad
hoc committees, alliances, brotherhoods, military units, councils, circles, institutes,
unions (other than labor unions), confraternities, conventions, guilds, conferences,
confederations, orders, bureaus and other combinations formed to accomplish objectives
best attained with the strength of numbers. Most political organizations and labor unions
have generally been omitted or only partially indexed. When most of the names
mentioned in connection with a society are Gaelic Irish or Norman Irish, that society is
considered an Irish society at that time. An organization may have started as mostly
Irish, and then changed over time. Thus, many of the organizations listed in Wrindex
as "Irish Societies" were de facto Irish Societies.
The family holding the library from which the listings are drawn
is descendent from Captain Michael J. Wrin, a San Francisco businessman who was one of the most active organizers of
Irish societies in early San Francisco. His biography appears in IRISH CALIFORNIANS:
Historic, Benevolent, Romantic by Patrick J. Dowling, 1998, Scotwall Associates,
Publishers, 95 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 861-1956.
Please Note: Wrindex can not be considered a
complete record of the times, or a complete index of anything. It is simply a directory,
compiled at the discretion of the person posting in the entries, of the archives in a
private library. Seemingly duplicative and redundant information has not been
referenced. Also, numerous issues are missing from microfilmed newspaper
collections. References to information which might be considered marginal are
omitted to keep the size of the record from exceeding the capacities of normal computers.
Much of this material was newspaper accounts, which often contain misspellings of
names or incorrectly stated items; these were posted in as published. (The Wrin family
itself found its name spelled five or six different ways.) And of course any project of
this magnitude will contain data entry errors, etc. Wrindex is an actual
working index of a private research library, and has not been refined for purposes of
publication. It is a practical working tool, but not a source document itself. |
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