Notre Dame gender and household research on Beaver Island, 2012

Source

Date: 2012
Eras: Irish eraModern era
Concepts: familyeconomyheritagehistoriographyirish-arranmore
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

This source record groups two held 2012 University of Notre Dame student studies within the Irish Stories research context. One examines women’s economic roles in Irish-American communities through a Beaver Island comparison; the other examines gendered domestic space across Árainn Mhór and Beaver Island. Together they make a research pathway visible between household life, farming and fishing economies, migration, material culture, and place-based identity.

What the studies do—and do not—establish

The papers document their authors’ research questions, comparative methods, and interpretive arguments. They identify the types of material consulted—published and census material, oral histories, photographs, house plans, and fieldwork or architectural observations. They do not provide a complete list of women’s occupations, a household census, a land-title history, a public inventory of homes or archaeological sites, or a uniform account of Irish or Mormon domestic life.

Evidence and privacy limits

The KB records the existence, scope, and method of these held works, not their private oral-history content or unverified family assertions. Specific houses, families, artifacts, and archaeological locations require their own public, record-specific evidence and appropriate cultural-resource review.

Sources

Catherine Ahern, “Women and Economy: Analyzing the Roles of Women in Irish-American Communities during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” University of Notre Dame student research paper, 2012.
Held 32-page student research paper. It compares Beaver Island with Butte and San Francisco using cited historical works, census material, oral histories, house plans, and photographs. Its conclusions are the author’s comparative interpretation, not a complete occupational census, family reconstruction, or islandwide measure of women’s work.
documents · nd_irishstories · student_work · Ahern-Women-and-Economy
Jacqueline Thomas, “Spatial Dimensions of Social Relations: Gendered Domestic Spaces on Árainn Mhór, Co. Donegal and Beaver Island, Michigan,” University of Notre Dame student research paper, 2012.
Held 17-page student research paper. It compares domestic-space dimensions and floor plans with archival and oral-history material, focusing on the Greene homestead and broader Irish/Mormon architectural discussion. It is not a survey of every home, a public archaeological-site map, or proof of a uniform household practice.
documents · nd_irishstories · student_work · Thomas-Final-CopySingle-Space
Deborah L. Rotman et al., “Technical Report for 2010–2011 Field Seasons,” University of Notre Dame Irish Stories project, issued 2013.
Project-level context for the held student work: an interdisciplinary program combining archaeology, archival research, oral history, laboratory analysis, and public outreach. It is not a warrant to treat the student papers as final technical reports.
documents · nd_irishstories · 2011

Added 2 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Notre Dame gender and household research on Beaver Island, 2012”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/documents/notre-dame-gender-and-household-research-2012/, accessed [date], citing Catherine Ahern, “Women and Economy: Analyzing the Roles of Women in Irish-American Communities during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” University of Notre Dame student research paper, 2012. (and 2 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-02. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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