Land recordsYou can view a copy of Bob's presentation in pdf format.
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Index of Townlands 1901
There are over 64,000 townlands in Ireland. Townlands are the most basic unit of land division. They can range from just a few acres in size to several hundred acres, particularly in mountainous areas. The Index to the Townlands was published in 1904 by the Commissioners of Census as an aid to the processing of the returns for the 1901 census in order to obtain statistics. Today you can use it to get a handle on where your ancestors came from. Beware that the same townland name may be used several times across Ireland. You need to know at least one of the larger land units (such as a Barony or a County) that contain it. The IreAtlas This project maintained by Sean Ruad is actually a database rather than a book of maps but it is an essential tool in identifying just where your ancestors came from (and all the other places with the same name where they are not from.). Note that it has not been updated this century, but the information is still good. An official version of this type of information (on townlands) limited to the province of Ulster (that is 6 counties) is maintained by the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland Griffiths Valuation
Griffith's Valuation is the name widely given to the Primary Valuation of Ireland, a property tax survey carried out in the mid-nineteenth century under the supervision of Sir Richard Griffith. The survey involved the detailed valuation of every taxable piece of agricultural or built property on the island of Ireland and was published county-by-county between the years 1847 and 1864. It generated a vast amount of data in tables and maps. Ask about Ireland provides the very best (and free) access to all those data. Valuation Office Books
The records which underlie and inform the printed valuation published in Griffith have now been digitised, and they contain more information about households and landholding than can be found in the printed version. These are available through the National Archives. |
Irish Place Names
Although the similarity of the names of many places in Ireland can be confusing at first, it makes sense once you understand their origins. Place names may include a part that describes a land feature. bally (baile) a town or homestead kill (coill or cill) a church or a wood drum or drom (droim) a ridge carrick (carraig) a rock clogh (cloch} a stone clon (cluain) a meadow or pasture lough (locha) lake letter (leitir) hillside lis (lios) ring fort temple (teampaill) church Ordnance Survey Ireland provides a very good detailed modern map to use as the base for your exploration. Note that you cannot drag the map with the mouse (it zooms instead) so use the arrow keys or click on the compass (top left) to move around. If you get the area of interest in the centre of the screen at low magnification, you should not lose it as you zoom.
The Ireland Story is a (one-man) project to make available the complete history of Ireland with geography and maps. While it has some way to go to reach that lofty goal, it does provide a nice collection of historical and modern maps. It even includes a blank map with county borders for those who like to jot information onto a simple map but are terrible at sketching. Historic Ordnance Survey maps for Ulster are available on the site of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Note that you can alternate between using your mouse cursor to drag the map or to select a piece to magnify. Be aware that not all areas are covered in the collection for all time periods; if you draw a blank (literally) just select a slightly earlier or later time. Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland
The purpose of this project is to provide finding aids for the records held at the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. The project produces (i) a name index for the memorial transcription books (ii) transciptions of the Registry of Deeds's grantors indexes and (iii) transciptions of the Registry of Deeds's townland indexes. Each of these index databases can be searched on a number of fields. None, of course, is complete - containing only those index entries contributed by the project volunteers. |