Ireland was one of the first places in the world to develop a system of regular surnames, so there have been people bearing the Boyle name (in its Irish form, Ó Baoighill) for over a millennium - there are frequent mentions of them in the early Irish annals. Yet we are unable to trace our ancestry any further back than a couple of hundred years. Why so?

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Unfortunately, there is a big gap in the historical records that is impossible to bridge. The Irish 18th century is a dark period for the genealogist. For the period up to the 17th century there are extensive, if often fanciful, genealogical records in the old Irish annals, because in Gaelic society knowledge of one’s ancestry was an important element in establishing one’s rights and privileges. Land ownership requires legal documents to confirm it; records of rites of passage – baptism, marriage and death – need a well-organised church or state to maintain them; the education system keeps track of achievements and qualifications.

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But by 1700 the destruction of the ancient Gaelic culture and society meant that these rights and privileges, together with the legal, administrative and religious structures and systems to document and record them, no longer existed.

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As a result of wars and colonisation, land and property was confiscated, the church was proscribed and the traditional system of education and learning was destroyed. With no land or property, an underground church that can only operate in secrecy and only the most rudimentary educational system, there is no mechanism to create records and no means of storing and maintaining them.

Thus for the vast bulk of the Irish population who were not propertied, professional or Protestant, there are simply no records of their existence for at least three or four generations. To understand how this situation has arisen, it helps to take on board a little bit of history.