The book looks at the trades and occupations of milling, building and printing, the drapers and grocers and wine merchants, and the doctors and lawyers, as they developed and changed throughout the course of the 19th century.
Researched and edited by Lucille Ellis, the book looks at the trades through the lives of certain families who were prominent in these areas, and their stories tell of life as it was lived in Ennis. Families researched include Bannatyne, Carroll, Cullinan, Gallery, Gibson, Knox, McBeath, O'Brien, Parsons, Russell and Shaw. To those who walk old Drumcliff these names will be familiar and linked to a number of family tombs.
In her research Lucille has matched with examples for each trade one or two prominent families and woven their personal histories into the history of their given occupations. When it comes to the printing trades we read about the Knox and Parsons families who were the clear leaders in their field.
The research includes the standard building blocks in family research, state birth, marriage and death records and the parallel church records,
the Griffith's land valuation records along with the Valuation books which document the ownership of the land records up to the mid-twentieth century. Use was also made of the 1901 and 1911 censuses. She has also drawn on some new sources such as leases of lands, and marriage settlements.
Some of the best sources of information came from the newspapers of the day. The book is illustrated throughout with old photographs, contemporary maps and newspaper advertisements.