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The census substitute for mid-19th century Ireland (the original census records were destroyed). Griffith's Valuation includes the names of the occupiers of EVERY property in Ireland at that time.
Search by the names of occupiers, immediate lessors (click in the Include lessor checkbox), and place (county, parish, town). |
| Names with apostrophes |
| For names with apostrophes (eg. O'Flynn) do not leave a space after the apostrophe.
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| Information in records |
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The information recorded in each printed page of the Valuation only relates to the name of the householder, and does not list the family members, or any other genealogical data, so it is not a census. However, from the data obtained, it is possible to connect the family using other primary sources like parish registers and civil registration of births, deaths and marriages. It is also possible to determine the social and economic position of a family (by examining the value and extent of the property they occupy), as well as the neighbourhood in general. One may also build community profiles to help determine the origin of a spouse or other relatives.
Griffith's Valuation is arranged by the following: (click links for Explanations of terms) Apart from townland address and occupier's name, the particulars given in the valuation records are: |
| Agnomens (latin: additional name) |
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In the index records, the agnomen (latin: additional name) is shown in the occupier miscellaneous field. Agnomens are extremely useful when there were 2 or more persons in the same townland who had the same name, eg, Occupier such names as "John O'Connell (weaver)" and "John O Connell".
The most commonly used agnomens are senior and junior to differentiate between a father and his son who have the same first name. Usually just one of these will appear but you can reasonably assume that the other party is present in that townland, of not actually in the same house. The junior/senior agnomen was sometimes used for women. However, when so used, this did not necessarily signify a mother/daughter relationship; it may also signify a mother/daughter-in-law relationship. When women with the same given and married name were widowed, the maiden name was often used as an agnomen to clarify the distinction. If another name appears in parentheses after the occupier's name, this is generally the father's name, used to identify men with the same first name. Use of the father's name in these instances should not be interpreted to indicate that the father was deceased; he may be living in the same townland or in a neighbouring one. |
| Price comparisons between 1264 and 2004 |
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Prior to 1971, the British monetary system consisted of pence, shillings and pounds. The pound sterling was divided into 20 shillings, each shilling containing 12 pence (i.e. a pound contained 240 pence). In Griffith's Valuation values are represented as "£ s d" (or "LSD"), so for example £12-11-10 would mean 12 pounds + 11 shillings + 10 pence.
Use eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/ to convert Griffith's Valuation values to present day values, eg, £1 sterling in 1850 would be worth around £65 sterling (US$109/€92) today. |
| Explanation of terms |
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Acreage
Land in Griffith's valuation is measured by; statute acre, rood and perch. A statute acre contained 4840 square yards, a rood was ¼ of an acre of 1210 square yards and a perch was 1/40th of a rood containing 30 square yards As Lessor The immediate lessor is the same as the occupier (lessee). In other words the occupier owns the land. Barony A territorial division of a county often based on medieval Gaelic lordships, and used as administrative units for taxation and other administrative purposes until the late 19th century. There are 331 baronies in Ireland. Some baronies overlap more than one county. Baronies are no longer used for local government. Common Some land in Ireland was still legally common land (or commons). These were generally medieval rights allowing common use of specific lands, usually waste ground. By the mid-nineteenth century most common land had been enclosed under parliamentary legislation, or had become the freehold property of squatters. Cottier/Labourer A landless person renting and cultivating a small holding - known as cottier tenure. The land was let annually and in small portions directly to labourers with the rent fixed, who usually off-set their rent against a number of days working on the rentier's lands for free. County The principal unit of local government, created by the English between the Norman invasion and 1606. They often reflected older Gaelic territorial boundaries. There are 32 counties in total - 6 in Northern Ireland and 26 in the Republic of Ireland. Free An abbreviation of Freehold (qv.) Freehold Freehold tenure constituted absolute ownership of land. Immediate Lessor The immediate lessor was the person or organisation the occupier (usually a leaseholder) held their land from usually by payment of rent. This could be the outright owner who held the freehold, or a middle man who held an estate by some form of leasehold and sub-let the premises to the actual occupier. If this term appears in the 'Immediate lessors" field, it means the same as "As Lessor", ie that the occupier owns the land. In Chancery Lands were considered to be 'In Chancery' when they were under the control of the Law Courts and subject to their judgement. This might happen if the lands were in contention between two parties, or if the immediate lessor had died intestate, or there were other reasons for any of the courts to take control of the land. In perpetuity For ever In fee Lands held 'in fee' were freehold tenures, derived from a grant from the Crown. Lease The frequent term of a lease was 21 or 31 years, known as a 'lease of years'. Alternatively land was leased for the life time of named individuals otherwise known as a 'lease of lives', eg. typically there were three named lives, including the tenant, his son and another named individual. The lease and rent agreement remained in force until the death of all three named persons. Some of the more prosperous tenants secured the right to get renewable leases for ever, or leases for several hundred years, which were essentially freehold in all but name. However over 80% of all tenancies in the mid nineteenth century were annually set, with no security and no formal lease. Occupier The individual or corporation who owns, leases or rents a holding (tenement) and who is financially responsible for the taxes levied on the holding. This will generally be the head of the household, in the case of a house. NOTE: Particularly in urban areas there may be several households living within a single house, and only one head-of-household (if any) will be named. Parish A civil parish may contain anything from 5 to 30 townlands. Parishes appeared in the medieval period (12th century) and were originally an ecclesiastical administrative division over which a clergyman exercised jurisdiction. These medieval parishes were used as geographical units of local administration, otherwise known as civil parishes. The majority of 19th Century (or earlier) records are based on these, but they are no longer in administrative use today. Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland parishes are not the same as the civil parishes. While the majority of Church of Ireland parishes do correspond to the civil parish, most Roman Catholic parishes cover parts of more than one civil parish Poor Law Union The poor law union was introduced in 1838 under the Poor Law Act. Between 1838 and 1852, workhouses were built throughout the country, each at the centre of an area known as a Poor Law Union (PLU). At first there were 130 PLUs covering the entire country, but these were expanded to 163 during the course of the Griffith Valuation. These workhouses were generally situated in a large market town and the Poor Law Union comprised this town and its catchment area, the result being that the Unions in many cases ignored the existing boundaries of parish and county. Quality Lot The areas of the holding, distinguished, for valuation purposes, by the quality of the soil. Tenant An individual who rents or leases a property and pays stated rent (in money, kind, or days worked for free) to a middleman or owner. Tenement Any taxable property (building structure and land) that is held or possessed for any time period (term), whether owned, rented or leased for not less than year to year. One person may hold several distinct tenements and several persons may hold one tenement (NOTE: Because much urban property was held under terms of less than one year, e.g. flats on a weekly rent, the occupiers of this property are not recorded in Griffiths). Townland The smallest of the governmental administrative land districts, townlands are still in use today. The term townland probably derives from the Anglo-Saxon word 'toun' which means farmstead. The Gaelic equivalent is Baile, anglicised as Bally. There are more than 64,000 townlands in Ireland, varying in size from an acre or less to several thousand acres. They can be individual family farms or a group of farms; they also tend to be larger than towns, so that most towns and villages in Ireland are contained within a townland - often, though not always, with the same name. In a few cases, a townland may be contained within the boundaries of a town. Many townlands take their names from physical characteristics of an area such as ruins of churches and forts and from clan names. There are frequently several separate townlands with the same name: for example there are 56 Kilmores and 47 Dromores. So you usually will need to know at least the county, and preferably the parish, to identify a townland unambiguously. Union See Poor Law Union |
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