The Irish Reproductive Loan Fund was a micro credit scheme set up in 1824 to provide small loans to the ‘industrious poor’. Local associations and committees administered the scheme, most often from a small town in a rural area, and county committees oversaw their work. The records of the local associations and county committees are in the UK National Archives and cover the years 1824 to 1846 for county Cork. As well as the notes of security for the loans, there are loan ledgers, repayment books and defaulters’ books. The minimum information supplied is address and occupation, but much additional detail is often given in the local association records, including notes on health, family circumstances and emigration.

brahalish 1848

carrigboy 1846

loan reproduction fund 1846

Reproduction Loan Records Durrus/Kilcrohane 1853

Verified by Constable Heffernan, Carrigbui, 1853.  The handwriting is somewhat difficult to make out, there are comments like gone to England, America, in poor circumstances or middling circumstances.