Sharkey writes that he was apprenticed in about 1794, so these reminiscences must have been written near the end of his life. The overall date range of the contents is circa 1748-1849, but the dates covered in the individual books vary, overlap and are not always chronological, even though some of the books are numbered.

The contents are largely autobiographical: landmarks of family life, interactions with friends, apprenticeship to an attorney, military experiences, career as a magistrate, and Irish political events witnessed. Considerable portions are written as narrative, but there are also numerous short entries, copied letters and documents, a poem about tobacco, and a few small drawings.

Vital statistics of family members and others, sometimes copied from tombstones, appear often, as do accounts of violent events, such as the robbery of Francis Sharkey and the murder of the Reverend James McCarter in 1807. Draft personal and business letters from Sharkey, removed from old letterbooks, were found loosely inserted in one of the memorandum books.