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Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland and Finding Your Irish Ancestors

Griffith’s Primary Valuation of Ireland was used to determine the amount of tax each person should pay towards the support of the poor within their poor law union. This involved determining the value of all privately held lands and buildings in rural as well as urban areas to figure the rate at which each unit of property could be rented year after year.

The resulting survey was arranged by barony and civil parish with an index to the townlands appearing in each volume. Griffith’s Valuation can be used as an excellent census substitute for the years after the Great Famine as censuses prior to 1901 were destroyed in the records office fire in 1922. The document lists every landholder and householder in the 32 counties, and is arranged by county, barony, poor law union, civil parish and townland.

The valuation was never intended as a substitute for the census, and has limited significance for genealogists. However, because of the subsequent destruction of so many other source documents, including the 1851 census, it remains the only detailed guide to where in Ireland people lived in the mid-19th century.

Essentially Griffith’s was a type of census of property owners in Ireland from 1848 – 1864. It was used to determine what portion of tax a landowner should pay in support of the poor within their poor law union. It was based, not only on the value of the property, but also on how much rent could be obtained from it. This makes it extremely valuable to Irish researches as it contains, not only property owners – but renters as well. Although it will contain heads of households only, there is light here!! Griffith’s Valuation can also shed light on a persons occupation, (all outbuildings were described and taxed as well, if deemed appropriate)his financial status, his/her level of education and whether he possibly had family nearby. Look for siblings, parents, and other relatives to determine if this is YOUR ancestor.

No discussion of Griffiths Primary Valuation of Ireland would be complete with mentioning the Ordnance Survey Maps. These are maps created at 6” to 1 mile and were meant to complement the Valuations. These are highly detailed and allow you to see the outline of property boundaries along with the houses, outbuildings, roads and villages. These maps can be invaluable as a visual means of connecting adjacent properties and finding relatives that lived nearby. Also, as a complement to the Ordnance Survey Maps, a written description of several counties in Northern Ireland was published. These written books, known as the Ordnance Survey Memoirs are extremely detailed descriptions of the people and customs, and geography of the locals mapped. A great historical record. Unfortunately they were discontinued in the 1840′s as too expensive to continue.

About the Author

For more information on Griffiths Valuation of Ireland, including where to go for FREE searches of the original books and where to get copies of the Ordnance Survey maps and OS Memoirs, visit More Generations, where you can find the answers to many of your Irish Genealogy questions.

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