The following are sources that are more local in scope, but, if you know
your area, they might fill in a few blanks, or raise more questions.
film # 1441023 INVENTORIES, REGISTERS AND CATALOGS: CENSUS &
SUBSTITUTES
Matheson's Special Report on the Surnames of Ireland, issued in 1894. It
lists every surname for which five or more births were recorded in 1890.
More useful for people with unusual names, this can help pinpoint the
province or county to search. Film 0476999
Also, AJMorris (PO Box 535, Farmington MI 48332) publishes The Special Report
on one microfiche for $5.00.
item 1
Sample Name Irl L M U C Counties in which primarily found
Kelly 1242 435 211 267 329 Found in every county, but chiefly
in Dublin, Galway, Mayo,
Roscommon and Cork
Killoran 7 - - - 7 Roscommon and Sligo
(Abbreviations: Irl= Ireland; L=Leinster; M=Munster; U=Ulster; C=Connacht)
An Index of surnames of householders in Griffith's Primary Valuation and
Tithe Applotment Books, (National Library of Ireland) pub. 1970 14
volumes : maps
...The National Library of Ireland took the surnames by County from Griffiths
and the Tithe Applottment, sorted them by surname with the Baronies where
the names occurred , then by Civil Parish within the Baronies. Helps to
narrow your search within each county so that you can then can check for
church records to see where the family was from in a townland.
The G stands for Griffiths and if there is a number with it that means
that the name occurred that may times in that Barony. The T stands for Tithe
Applottment which was about 25 years before Griffiths. There is no count
associated with it , the name occurred at least once or not at all. Generally
when you search this
index its good to have at least two names as fathers surname and maiden name
of mother to narrow the search in the Civil Parish search.
...This is a good place to start if you know the county and nothing else.
Names are listed by parish with the number of families found in the
Griffiths records (1848-60) and the Tithe Applotment records which date
from 1825-38)
HOUSEHOLDER'S INDEX CALL NUMBER GUIDE - LDS MICROFILM #'s
919,001 Counties Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan
919,002 Counties Clare, Cork, Derry (Londonderry)
919,003 Counties Donegal, Down, Dublin
919,004 Counties Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny
919,005 Counties Laois (Leix, Queen's) Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath
919,006 Counties Monaghan, Offaly (King's), Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary
919,007 Counties Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow
Griffiths Valuation (1848-64) aka Sir Richard Griffith's Primary
Valuation of Ireland.
Griffiths Valuation, a property assessment (for taxation) of all properties in Ireland,
took place during the years 1848 to 1864. They began in the south of
Ireland and ended up in Ulster. It lists the lessors (not the same as the
owner) and lessees of all property in the country. It is the primary 19th
century Irish reference in which the poor are likely to be found.
The actual dates of the valuation in each county are on the data page for the
county (go to county index and then on to the
proper county page. The data page is the first link in the OnLine resources
area.)
Arranged by county, barony, poor law union, civil parish and townland and
listing every occupier of land, the lessor of that land, size of the
holding, and the rate payable on that holding. Since so many of our
ancestors were tenant farmers, this is probably the best way to find them.
(When searching it: a is for acre,
r is rood 16 1/2 ft by 16 1/2ft, and p is perch--stonework-25 cu ft.)
A good sample of this record can be found on the Leitrim-Roscommon Web
Site:
http://www.thecore.com/let_ros/
If your roots are in either of these
counties, you may do a search in the data base.
Films are available through the Family History Centers. Get help from a
volunteer if necessary to look in the computer catalog under: Ireland
(county) land records. These records can lead you to the landlord's name,
and from there, to various Estate Records that are filmed. Information on
each varies, but the catalog specifies whether all tenants are listed or
only those with sizable holdings. By the time you are looking at these
records, you'll be very comfortable with Family History Centers and
probably ready to write a guide yourself!
The Griffith's Valuation Index itself is now commercially available (for about $US 60).
It gives Name, County, Parish, Location. The full evaluation contains much more
information.
"When testifying before the Select Committee on County Cess, Griffith
was asked whether the boundary of a townland is the boundary of a parish,
are the boundaries in any degree commensurate? He responded:
'The boundaries of parishes are always boundaries of townlands; that is to
say, one townland cannot be contained in two parishes; it sometimes happens
that an estate may lie on both sides of the boundary of a parish, and that
the townland in each parish is called by the same name, and is considered to
be one townland, but in such cases I have always divided the townland, and
added the word upper or lower, east or west, to the original name, to serve
to distinguish them. As each parish will be separately assessed, it is
necessary that no confusion should arise as to the boundaries of any
denomination or division belonging to it, consequently in all cases the
boundary of a parish must likewise be the boundary of a townland as far as
that parish or the county assessment is concerned.'"
The Cancelled Land Books and Current Books are updates of the Griffith's
Valuation. The Cancelled Land Books show the change in the head of
household. Periodically the Griffith's Valuation is updated and you can
actually see when the head of household died or immigrated. When the head
of the household died or immigratesd his or her name is crossed out and the
new head of household is written in with the date. Also if a new building
is built on the land this will also show. If you know where your ancestors
lived when
the Griffith's Valuation was taken it is a marvelous resource to help
follow your family through to the mid 1900s.
They are not called the Cancelled Land Books at
the FHC, they are under listed under the category of Land and Property and
then the Valuation records, they are
listed as "Land Valuations 1859-1956" or something close to that.
If you can't find them that way, look up film# 0840614. That is the
Cancellation Books for the electoral district of Coom in Co. Kerry.
That will tell you how the films are titled for the other districts.
Irish Estate Records
by Judith Eccles Wight (Ancestry magazine, Jan/Feb 1996, Vol. 14, No. 1)
Tithe Applotment books and indexes for Northern Ireland ( covering the
years 1822-1837) are indexed by townland:
A-D.....................................Film 1565423
E-W.....................................Film 1565424
and also by surname:
Actual records can be found by surname on....Films 1565426 through 1565604
Catalog of tithe books for
1824-1840....................................Film 0258443
Actual tithe applotment books for Northern Ireland, listed alphabetically,
by townland, see Family History Library Catalog under "Ireland, Land and
Property" ( 27 films).
The Tithe Applotment books were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order
to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings should
pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland (the main Protestant church, and
the church established by the state until 1871). There is a manuscript
book for almost every parish, giving the names of occupiers, the amount
of land held, and the sums to be paid in tithes.
Tithes started out as a tax on the agricultural yield of the land (crops
and livestock) that was paid to the established church. The original
concept was the biblical one that one tenth (the literal meaning of
tithe) was paid. A rectory typically received the tithe in kind for the
use of the church and its rector in that parish. However, church
politics being what they were, the desire for centralisation of power
was great, and the monasteries and religious orders throughout mediaeval
times 'impropriated' the tithes. This means that they established a
legal right to receive them centrally rather than the rector locally.
When Henry VIII disestablished the monasteries in 1537, these
impropriated tithes were effectively sold to the highest bidder and most
of them passed into the hands of wealthy, and often absentee, landlords.
This system was found throughout England, Wales and Ireland. Tithes were
payable in Ireland regardless of a land occupier's religious
affiliations, to a mixture therefore of the Church of Ireland and lay
impropriators. Not unnaturally Catholic land occupiers resented
supporting the Church of Ireland, as did Nonconformists in England and
Wales the Church of England. The problems this posed were more acute in
Ireland where the Tithe Composition Act of 1823 allowed tithes to be
paid in cash instead of kind. The same process happened in England and
Wales in 1836 with the passage of the Tithe Commutation Act
The value of these Acts of Parliament to the genealogist is that they
often provide a record of who farmed what land, where, what kind of
farming went on, and what the yield of the land was worth. The Tithe
Applotment books of the 1830s are the source for these. Just because someone is recorded as the
Impropriator for Tithes does *not* mean that they owned the land
(although they could do), just that they had acquired the right to those
taxes on it. The books are ordered by Diocese, by Parish, by Townland.
Land areas in Tithe Applotment Books are in units of A. R. P. or Acres,
Rods and Perches. The arithmetic means 40 perches to a rod and 4 rods to
an acre. Similarly land values are in pounds, shillings and pence; 12
pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound.
For further
information regarding the lists see �The Tithe-Defaulter Schedules for
Ireland - 1831�, �The Genealogist�, Vol IX No 1 March 1998.
Kilkenny.......10,263 names...4 fiche
Tipperary.......9,346 names...3 fiche
Wexford.........2,773 names...2 fiche
Cork............2,115 names...1 fiche
Waterford.......1,838 names...1 fiche
Louth.............965 names...1 fiche
Limerick..........851 names...1 fiche
Laois......360
Meath.......36
Carlow.....437
Offaly......23
Kerry ......20
...........886 names combined on 1 fiche
Complete collection - 29,027 names on 15 fiche
Tithe Defaulters Ireland - 1831 by Stephen McCormac,
Malvern: Data Tree Publishing (1998)
ISBN 0-9585255-0
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~datatree/index.htm
The indexes for Kilkenny and Tipperary have the largest
number of defaulters. There are good representation for
Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Louth and Wexford.
Laois, Meath, Carlow, Offaly, and Kerry have been combined.
Each county includes: an introduction relating the history of
the Tithe Defaulters, the Clergy Relief Act, the sworn Affidavits
by the Clergy, and a comparison with the data from the 1831
census.
The indexes provide the name, address and occupation and
reference numbers to the original material.
1876 Owners of Land of one acre or more, as compiled by local government
board.
London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1876. [Reissued by The
Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988].
This records 32,614 owners of land in Ireland in 1876, identifying them by
province and county; the entries record the address of the owner, along with
the extent and valuation of the property.
Available on fiche through The Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, MD
About The Hearth Tax.
Pension Requests made in the early 1900s can be helpful if your ancestors
were from Northern Ireland.
Films: 0258545 thru 0258548 offer the names of people born early in the
19th Century (before birth records were recorded), who used old census
records (1841,1851) to prove their age for retirement. Since these searches
were done prior to the 1922 destruction of records, it is one of the few
ways to access this information.
Ireland: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Northern Ireland)
Josephine Masterson
538 pp., Indexed. Illus. 1999. ISBN0806315873.
Cloth. $50.00.
Ireland: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Republic of Ireland)
Josephine Masterson
148 pp., Indexed. Illus. 1999. ISBN0806315865.
Cloth. $25.00.
Register of Births at Sea of British Nationals 1875-1891
FHLC
sfilm: | | |
| 1483321 folio nos. 1 - 86 | 7/1875 - 8/1880 | (England) |
| 1483322 folio nos. 86-146 | 8/1880- 12/1884 | (England) |
| 1483323 folio nos. 148-232 | 2/1885-12/1891 | (England) |
| " " . folio nos. 1-126 | 5/1875-12/1885 | (Ireland) |
| " " . folio nos. 127-173 | 1/1886-1/1890 | (Ireland) |
| 1483323 folio nos. 174-end | 2/1890-12/1891 | (Ireland) |
| " " . folio nos. 1-124 | 5/1875-12/1885 | (Scotland) |
| " " . folio nos. 125-end | 1/1886-12/1891 | (Scotland) |
Records found under Great Britain - Merchant Marine; England - Civil
Registration; Ireland - Civil Registration; Scotland - Civil Registration.
National School Registers of Northern Ireland 1850-1950
Film numbers: 0247416 thru 0258854.
Covers counties: Down, Derry, Antrim, Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone. (see
Ireland - schools)
1831-1921 National School Records. In 1831 a country-wide system of
primary education was established under the control of the Board of
Commissioners for National Education. The most useful records produced
by the system are the school registers themselves, which record the age
of the pupil, religion, father's address and occupation, and general
onservation. Unfortunately, in the Republic of Ireland no attempt has
been made to centralise these records; they remain in the custody of
local schools or churches. The Public Record Office of N. Ireland has a
collection of over 1,500 registers for schools in the Six Counties of N.
Ireland. The admisistravtive records of the Board of Commissioners
itself are now held by the National archives in Dublin. These include
teachers' salary books, which can be useful if an ancestor was a
teacher. If you know the name of the town you could contact local authorities
for the information.
Birth, Death and Marriages of Irish Citizens in Continental Europe
1864-1923.
Film: 0101764 (see Ireland - civil registration)
Register of Ireland General Registry Office: Births, Deaths, Marriages,
1845-1959
1796 "The Spinning Wheel Survey"
(Also known as the "Flax Growers Bounty List of 1796" and the "Premium
Entitlements of the Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufacturers of
Ireland")
lists those who received spinning wheels and/or looms
from the Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufacturers of Ireland, in
exchange for growing flax on their land. (Apparently they received a loom for planting 5 acres of flax
and 4 spinning wheels for planting one acre. The average in the 50,000 or so grants was 2 wheels.) The All Ireland Heritage Series
Edition offers an alphabetical index of names with their province, county
and civil parish. (12 fiche in the set). The only counties NOT represented
are Dublin and Wicklow. The highest number of wheels were given to Co.
Donegal...14,454; County Donegal had 7,000; the lowest to Co.
Waterford.....3. The index is easy to
use and gives a good cluster of names found within various parishes.
The original list is arranged by civil parish only and townland locations are not
given. It provides the names of almost 60,000 small farmers in Ireland, 30
years before the Tithe Applotment Books were commenced. The list is held by
the Linenhall Library in Belfast. PRONI has a microfiche copy which
includes a very useful surname index arranged by county. The National
Library in Dublin also has a copy. The "Surname Index to the Linen Industry, 1796" is on one reel
of microfilm is FHC number - 1419442. (There is also FHLC#6341104 - no circulation to Family History Centers.)
The original material is located at Linenhall Library, 17 Donegal Square,
Belfast, N. Ireland
The fiche is published by All Ireland Heritage, 2253 Cedar Lane, Vienna, VA
22180
LDS Microfiche # 6341104
The Board of Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufactures of Ireland began a premium scheme in 1796 to encourage the growing of flax and hemp seed by granting the growers of these crops spinning wheels, reels or looms in proportion to the acres sown. Claims for these grants were given to County Inspectors. The Board then published the information. Only one copy of this published records is known to have survived. It is in the rare book collection of the Linen Hall Library of Belfast. All-Ireland indexed it and sells the microfiche.
The original record contains more information than is reproduced in the microfiche set. The additional information would have resulted in duplication of many names which are redundant without adding significantly to the historic and genealogical value.
The record covers nearly all of Ireland with the exception of counties Dublin and Wicklow. The groupings of names are by civil parish, except for Longford which is by barony. Place names are spelled as they were printed in the original record. Few of the placenames have changed in two centuries, but the spelling differs. Standardized spelling of place names and surnames is of a much later timeframe. In many cases the variation is minor and obvious. The use of "h" in combination with "g" is frequently seen. The dropping of a final "e", substituting "a" for "y" or "e" for "i". Sounding out the name usually gives a clue to the intended name, either for place or person.
Spinning Wheel Survey
Portions of the Survey for counties Carlow, Galway, Kilkenny, Londonderry, Mayo and Sligo
are now online, thanks to NReeb and the Sweet Irish Rogues.
1749 Index to records in the Elphin Diocese
film: 0100868
Arranged by townland and parish, it indicates the householders, their
religion (PRotestant or PApist), the numbers, sex of their children with
ages listed as under or over 14, and the names of any servants. The Elphin Diocese consists of 51 of the
59 parishes in Roscommon; 17 parishes in Sligo, and 9 parishes in Galway.
If you know where your family was for the Griffiths Valuation, you can
trace back by townland to see if they were there one hundred years before.
If not, check around to see if the family name is represented in the area.
Marriages in Dublin newspapers (also Dublin goldsmiths) handwritten
transcripts.1731-1740
Extract for marriages, births and deaths taken from various newspapers. 1848
- 1872 and1873 - 1904.
Film: 0100213 item 9 (see Ireland - civil registration)
Marriage licenses, 1661-1750; extracted by Denis O'Callaghan Fisher.
Film: 0100167 item 2 (see Ireland - civil registration - inventories,
registers, catalogs.)
More Eighteenth & Nineteenth Century Census Substitutes
1703-1838: The Convert Rolls
Eileen O'Byrne, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1981. (NL Ir ) A list of those
converting from Catholicism to the Church of Ireland. The bulk of the entries
date from 1760 to 1790.
1740: Protestant householders
This is for parts of Cos Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Donegal and Tyrone.
Arranged by barony and parish, it gives names only. Parts are at the Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland, The Genealogical Office, the National
Library and the Representative Church Body Library.
1766: Religious Survey
In March & April of this year, Church of Ireland rectors (on the instructions
of the government) compiled lists of householders in their parishes. The lists
they compiled were not confined to member of the Church of Ireland, Catholics
were also included. This was known as the Religious Survey of 1766. No rules
were laid down on the amount of detail to be collected, nor the manner in
which the information was to be presented.
Some rectors produced only numerical totals of population, some drew up
partial lists, and others detailed all householders and their addresses
individually. All of the original returns were lost in 1922, but extensive
transcripts survive for some areas, and are deposited with various institutions.
The only full listing of all surviving transcripts and abstracts is in the
National Archives Reading Room, on the open shelves. However, this does not
differentiate between those returns which supply names and those which merely
give numerical totals.
1795-1862 : Charlton Trust Fund Marriage certificates.
The Charlton Trust Fund offered a small marriage gratuity to members of the
Protestant labouring classes. To qualify, a marriage certificate, recording
occupations and fathers names and signed by the local Church of Ireland
clergyman, had to be submitted, and these are now in the National Archives.
They are particularly useful for the years before the start of registration
of non Catholic marriages in 1845. The areas covered by the Fund were mainly
in Cos Meath and Longford, but a few certificates exist for parts of Cos Cavan,
King s (Offaly), Louth, and Westmeath, as well as Dublin city. They are
indexed in the NA.
1798: Persons who Suffered Losses in the 1798 Rebellion
A list of claims for compensation from the government for property
destroyed by the rebels during the insurrection of 1798. Particularly
useful for the property owning classes of Cos Wexford,Carlow, Dublin, Kildare
and Wicklow.
1853-1879: The Gloucestershire (UK) Summary Convictions Registers,
Ref QGc9 volumes 1 to 9.
"...The value of this source is the detailed physical
description together with a brief employment history and/or
extra family details. Also indexed are the plaintiffs, witnesses,
arresting officers, employers, etc., ...
Those claiming to be natives of Ireland have been extracted
into a database of 244Kb, from the main Convict database,
together with a very small database of 114Kb which lists those
persons named by the accused (after 1869) as next of kin, family
or friend and who were stated to be in Ireland. ... The actual registers can be seen at
Gloucestershire Record Office, Clarence Row, Alvin Street, Gloucester.
GL1 3DW"
EXTRACTS FROM GLOUCESTERSHIRE SUMMARY CONVICTIONS REGISTERS
Thanks to the Sweet Irish Rogues.
Various Dates:
Freeholders
Freehold property is held either by fee simple, with absolute freedom to
dispose of it, by fee tail, in which the disposition is restricted to a
particular line of heirs, or simply by life tenure. From the early eighteenth
century freeholders lists were drawn up regularly, usually because of the
right to vote which went with freehold of property over a certain value. It
follows that such lists are of genealogical interest only for a small minority
of the population.
Voters Lists and Poll Books
Voters lists cover a slightly larger proportion of the population than
Freeholders lists, since freehold property was not the only determinant of
the franchise. In particular, freemen of the various corporation towns and
cities had a right to vote in some elections at least. Since membership of
a trade guild carried with it admission as a freeman, and this right was
hereditary, a wider range of social classes is covered. Poll books are the
records of votes actually cast in elections.
Electoral Records
No complete collection of the electoral lists used in the elections of this
century exists. The largest single collection of surviving electoral
registers is to be found in the National Archives, but even here the coverage
of many areas is quite skimpy.
Muster Rolls 1630
These contain lists of the principal landlords in Ulster, and the names
of the men they could asemble in an emergency. They are arranged by
county, and district within the county. PRONI MIC 15A/52 & 53
...General Extracts of the Regular Army Muster Rolls 1741-80. PRONI T.808/15196
Valuations
Local valuations, and re-valuations, of property were carried out with
increasing frequency from the end of the eighteenth century, usually for
electoral reasons. The best of these record all householders.
Private Acts of Parliament
A large number of private acts from the early 1700's up until the beginning of
the 1800's were passed through parliament in London. They ranged from
naturalizations, to marriage settlements and divorces, to probate settlements
and guardianships.
Irish land records
People took out leases -- some for perpetuity; some for three
lifetimes. Any over 3 years in duration were recorded in the
Registry of Deeds.
...The deeds were recorded when the elder generation died. The younger
would established rights to the land by recording the genealogy.
You can get 3 generations or more from the deeds.
There are wills in the deeds too.
...The index to the
records is a complete index and makes not distinction as to grantee or
grantor. In some cases it is a complete index to all names (witnesses etc) in
the earlier records.
The 'Casey' collection
The O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve
Lougher and the Upper Blackwater in Ireland series, 16 volumes of primary
and secondary genealogical and historical records by Albert Eugene Casey, MD.
e hired a team of stenographers and toured that area of Cork and
Kerry where his people immigrated from. They transcribed Church records,
Griffiths Valuation and the Tithe applottment for the areas, maps,
histories, civil records and much valuable info. Although many Cork and Kerry church records were not
microfilmed for assorted reasons his transcriptions bring them to us.
...These volumes are only available at a few libraries, including the Irish
Genealogical Society International (IGSI).
...The IGSI has an article on the Casy collection and an index online at
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~irish/igsi/casey.htm.
These records intensely study a very small area of Ireland, and cover over
3 million lives!
...the Albert Casey collection has been microfilmed by the Mormons and is
available through its Family History centers, there about 16
volumes on microfilm, two volumes per roll and each volume has an
index. The typed copies in Volumes are easier to read than the microfilms but you take
what you can get. You may even try inter-library loan through your local
library. (See InterLibraryLoan article on this site)
Family History Library (FHL) film
numbers for the Deputy Keeper's Reports (DKR) of PRONI:
1929 DKR FHL#: 0845269-item 3 (note: when you make out your loan
card make sure you put this item # in the appropriate box!)
1924-1945 DKR FHL#: 0888988
1946-1953 DKR(indexes-names) FHL#: 0888989
1938-1959 DKR FHL#: 0845265
The 1960-1989? These Deputy Keepers Reports may be purchased from the
Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), go to their web page
and look under Publications, their web site is:
PRONI: http://proni.nics.gov.uk/index.html
There is a Consolidated Index for Irish Arms, Funeral Entries, Grants and Confirmations of Arms, O'Ferrall's
Linea Antiqua, Lords Entries, Ecclesiastical Visitations, Will Pedigrees,
Antrim Families, Ango-Irish Pedigrees, Betham Will Abstracts.
It was compiled by Virginia Wade McAnlis in four volumes, published in 1994.
She includes the indexes of materials at the Genealogical Office in Dublin and
listed by John Grehnam on pages 74 and 75 of his book "Tracing your Irish
Ancestors". The Consolidated Index includes the film call numbers both at
the National Library of Ireland and LDS. Only a few have not been filmed.
A Catholic in penal times was presumed guilty of disloyalty to the
authorities unless he could prove himself innocent. To avail of the
provisions of the Catholic Relief Acts, from 1778 he had to take an oath of
loyalty at the assizes in the county town. The names were then registered
in the Catholic Qualification Rolls according to surname, Christian name,
occupation, address, date and place of taking the oath. These lists are a
valuable addition to local and family history.
Also look for "Fiants". Fiants is short for Fiant Litterae patentes. Fiants were warrants to the Chancery
authority for the issue of letters patent under the Great Seal. They dealt with
matters ranging from commissions for appointment to high office and important
government activities to grants of "English Liberty" and "pardons" to the humblest
of the native Irish. The Great Seal remained in the possession or control of the
monarch, and without both signature and seal, a document didn't mean a whole lot.
The Chancery authority was headed by the Chancellor of England, with
delegates throughout the country -- remember
Ireland was ruled by England since the time of Henry II. A grant of
English Liberty was a fairly big deal; it meant you could seek redress for a wrong
in court -- without such a grant, you couldn't. You actually couldn't do a whole
lot of things without such a Grant, and it didn't really matter if you were
English, Irish, or Scots -- if you weren't "born to the manor," you couldn't
conduct a great deal of business or transfer property, or even own property in most
cases without one.
The records are: MS 2486 in the National Library of Ireland, microfilm
copy ms. (Neg. 1898-9; Pos. 1898-9 and also from MS aA.52.77 in the PRO in
Dublin. List no. I comes from the NL Manuscript, list II comes from the PRO
Dublin. The microfilm mentioned is for Fermanagh and Monaghan . . .
And yet more !
Probate records: The calandar was begun in 1858. LDS and LA
have the index from 1858 to 1920. One index for all 11 districts.
Since then the Ireland Probate Registry is for the south. There is a
card index to wills for the Republic. The calendar may be the
only record for some wills.[These got burnt]
Before 1858 there were 28 diocesan courts probating wills.
Many wills were probated in England, not Ireland, so they were not
destroyed in the Four Courts fire. These include Irish gentry,
average Irish who died in England, and Irish sailors dying abroad.
From 1858 to 1877 there are separate indexes for "sealing" Irish
wills which had an English connection. After that the wills are
spread throughout.
When searching for Wills in Ireland, there are two types -
Prerogative and and Diocesan. Those proven in the
Prerogative Court are the most valuable because they contain
testamentary devises from all parts of Ireland, and begin in
1536, ending in 1858. In the instances where wills were proved in
England, only copies of the originals are found in
Ireland.
PRONI has an index to wills 1536 to 1920. It is filmed and avail.
at LDS (and in LA).
Registry of deeds was established in 1708, but since registration
of deeds wasn't required... Also a
complex topic due to the various kinds (deeds, mortgages,
sales of land, leases, releases, assignments, business agreements,
marriage settlements, wills). There's a surname index to the
deeds collection, which is complete through 1901 at the LA FHC.
(See Computer 0149539) Also a place name index.
There are A LOT of records in London. The House of Lords had lots
of Irish members. Some records go back to the early 1600's. There
are records for the British Army going back into the 18th century.
many of these records predate Irish parish registers by 50 years.
There are indexes for 1760-1854 and 1883-1913.
The Irish Reproductive Loan Fund
The records of the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund, in T 91, may be helpful if
you are looking for a family in Munster or Connaught in the mid 1800s. The
fund provided loans at interest to the industrious poor, who had to provide
some form of security for the loan.
Records of the local associations which administered the loans survive for
counties Cork, Clare, Galway, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and
Tipperary. In addition to the notes of security (signed by the debtor and
two guarantors), there are loan ledgers, repayment books and defaulters
books. They do not give much detail other than place of abode and
occupation.
The records of the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund cover the years from
1822 to 1874, starting in the famine year of 1822.
These registers are at the Public
Record Office (PRO) at Kew in W. London. Their excellent web site is at
http://www.pro.gov.uk/
The also have
Irish State Tontines of 1773, 1775 and 1777. Lists names of subscribers
and nominees. Includes payment books for annuities, marriage and death
certificates, and declarations of identity for the years from 1773 to
1870. In class NDO 3.
Trinity house
petitions for widows registering dependent children. Always
gives the date of birth. Often have baptism and marriage certificates
attached. They are in London at the Society of Genealogists.
Work House Records are another resource.