Land Valuation Records

The Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith's Valuation are nineteenth-century property valuation records which are much used by family history researchers providing, if only in part, a substitute for the loss of almost all nineteenth-century census records for Ireland

The Primary Valuation of Ireland or Griffith’s Valuation - carried out between 1848 and 1864 - is an important Census Substitute. It provides the only detailed guide to where people lived in mid-nineteenth century Ireland and to the property they possessed.

It is arranged by county and, within each county, by Poor Law Union. Each Poor Law Union is divided into electoral divisions, parishes (Civil Parishes) and townlands.

The Valuation contains the following information in respect of each townland or street: map reference number (location of the holding on the first edition six-inch Ordnance Survey maps); names of occupiers of holdings; names of immediate lessors (the person from whom the holding was leased); descriptions of tenements (holding) eg, “House, offices and land” ; area (in Acres, Roods and Perches) of each holding; valuation of buildings, land, etc. with Total Annual Valuation of each holding

The image on the right is a page from the Griffith's valuation for Clones parish.At the bottom of the page you will see my ancestors townland of Eshnadarragh and next to map references 10 & 11 you will see the names of Michael and Denis Rooney.

These two I suspect were possibly brothers of my 3xgrandfather James, though at this moment in time I have not yet found any proof of this.

The Tithe Applotment Books were compiled between 1823 and 1838 as a survey of titheable land in each parish. (They do not cover cities or towns). In general, the information contained in the Tithe Books is as follows: name of occupier; name of townland; acreage; classification of land; amount of tithe due.

The Tithe Applotment Books are available on microfilm in the National Library of Ireland.

On the right hand side we see a page from the tithes which as you can see shows Mick Rooney of Eshnadarragh.

The main source for genealogical research in Ireland  is Roman Catholic Parish Registers. We managed to obtain a copy of the parish registers for St Tierneys on microfilm from the latterday saints.These were very hard to read and were in latin.The registry of births ran from 1862-1881.

The image on the right is part of a page from the parish register that shows the birth of my great grandfather Patrick Rooney in 1869