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Free Guide to Sources for Irish Family Research  

                                            Documents and Records

Census of Ireland 1659

Hearth Money Rolls

Civil Survey of Ireland

Tithe Applotments

Griffith's Valuation of Ireland

Valuation Maps

Cancellation Books

Census of Ireland 1659

The Census of Ireland of 1659 is important in that it lists the major landowners of the time and also lists the number of Irish in each parish.  It also lists the principle Irish names and the numbers of such names in each barony. Nice to see the family name if it is in there, but there is no way of linking to it directly.

Hearth Money Rolls: 1664

In the years after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, a tax was levied on all houses with fireplaces. Each fireplace in the house (usually 1) was taxed.  The record of people who were liable for this tax became known as the Hearth Money Rolls. This record is of limited use for the family researcher but is certainly worth looking at to ascertain if your family name is listed in this document from 350 years ago.  Available in the National Archives and at most  County Libraries. Check with them to see if it is available for your county.

Civil Survey of Ireland 1659

The Civil Survey of Ireland was a survey of all land in Ireland and contains lists of the principal landlords of every townland  before the Cromwellian confiscations of 1641.  Some information regarding the topography of the various parish boundaries is given. It is of limited use to the family researcher but interesting as a historical document as it defines the parishes  mentioned and sometimes uses townland divisions that are long forgotten. It also lists mills and castles in the area in the 1650s. Check with the County Library of the county you are working on. Failing that, you will find a copy in the National Archives at Bishop Street, Dublin.

Might not be available for all counties.

Clonmel, Co. Tipperary 1890s

Some form of tithe taxation ( 'one tenth') on farm produce had been in existence for many centuries, but in the 1700s it appears to have been given a more organised format. This tax on all farm produce was used for the upkeep of the Protestant Church of Ireland which was the  'Established' church in Ireland. This tax had to be paid by Catholics as well as Protestants even though the Protestant community were greatly in the minority.  Needless to say, this caused great resentment among the Catholic majority, and tithes were responsible for much agrarian strife.  Around 1834, a record of those who were liable to pay tithes was compiled and this became known as the Tithe Applotments. This document is in many County Libraries and is available on microfilm at the National Archives. Very valuable document in that it records every landholder in the country in the years before the Great Famine of 1845-1850. Here you can expect to find the name of the occupier of a plot of land, the type of land, (boggy or mountain pasture etc) name of townland, and the name of the townland and parish. This differs from Griffiths Valuation in that only agricultural land holders (and not town and city property dwellers) were recorded in this record.

Available at National Archives and possibly at the County Libraries.

During the 1830s and the early 1840s, a cartographic survey of all Ireland was carried out resulting in wonderfully detailed maps at a scale of 6 inches to 1 mile.  This scale allowed for every house and field boundary in the country to be recorded on the maps.  The maps also recorded archaeological monuments, streams, wells, ponds, mills, etc. It was these maps that were subsequently used to record the  information from Griffith's Valuation of Ireland (see below). The copies of the Ordnance Survey map which have been preserved are often clearer than the valuation maps (see below) available. They often reveal detail which has been obscured on the valuation maps. The amount of information in these O.S. maps is extraordinary.  As well as determining where your ancestor lived, you can very often  figure out where the nearest well was to your ancestors' house, where they went to the mill, where they went to church, the nearest school, where they visited with neighbours, etc.  These are maps of the very roads your grandparent or great grandparent walked on.

A further edition of the maps was published in the early 1900s. It is informative to compare the earlier pre-Famine  edition with this later edition.

In 1850, towards the end of the Great Famine, an ambitious project was undertaken that has had a major positive consequence for those researching Irish families, even though it was never intended as a 'family research' document.  This was a valuation of all the property in Ireland and was instigated as a means of raising taxes (rates) to support the system of Poor Law which had been  in place in the country for the previous ten years or so. It was this Poor Law system that ran the workhouses and some hospitals of Ireland. It also administered outdoor relief to the needy and oversaw many of the Famine Relief projects that had been in place during the 1840s. A Board of Guardians -some elected and some appointed - ran the Poor Law in each Poor Law Union (See guide to Irish land divisions). In Griffith's Valuation, every acre of land, every large house, every farm house, every cottage on every street and road in Ireland is listed with the size of the property, the rateable valuation, whether or not they had outbuildings (offices) etc.

Most importantly, the name of the person who owned or leased the land is given along with the lessor.  Sometimes the lessor is the landlord and sometimes the lessor is someone subletting part of their property. The size of the house can be ascertained by the amount of valuation applied to it.  What is even more exciting is that there is now easy access to the valuation maps that go with the valuation. These are available at the Valuation Office in Dublin. (I am informed that Griffiths is now  available online) A consequence of the blowing up of part of the Four Courts in Dublin at the outbreak of Civil War in 1922 was that all the censuses for Ireland taken during the 19th century were destroyed along with other priceless records. In the absence of these censuses, Griffith's Valuation has become the primary tool available to researchers.  Fortunately, it is freely available and all County Libraries will have their own county records on the shelf or on Microfilm.  Failing that, the valuation is certainly available in the National Archives. 

The Valuation Office in Dublin is at Irish Life Buildings, Lower Abbey Street.  Here you can get copies of the section of valuation map that corresponds with the townland you are researching.  Each entry in Griffith's Valuation has a map reference number and using this number you can pinpoint the house of your ancestor.  Once you have this information you can trace the ownership of the property down through the decades by consulting the Cancellation Books (See below).

Great old Pictures of Mitchelstown and Kilworth in County Cork.

Genealogy Ireland Irish Family Research

Guide to Irish Land divisions.

Civil Registration and Census of Ireland 1901 & 1911