Sources for Local History
Some of the key primary sources available at the Local Studies Department, County Library Headquarters:
Down Survey 1654 Sir William Petty
The Down Survey consists of Manuscript Parish Maps with Terriers (book recording boundaries and site details) recording land ownership and selected items of settlement and topography, such as castles, churches, barns, thatched stone houses (castles often depicted by rough sketch).
The lands surveyed were lands which were confiscated after the Cromwellian victory.
Lands classified as Protestant lands were not measured or subdivided. They will appear as blank areas on the maps.
Map Scale = eighty perches to an inch (Perch = 5 ½ yards)
The information in the accompanying Terriers was arranged by barony divided to parish, and detailed analysis forfeited lands was arranged in tabular form as follows:
Column No.
- Numbers in the plot
- Proprietors
- Denomination of lands
- No. of acres
- Land Profitable
- Land Unprofitable
Primary Valuation Books (Griffith’s Valuation)
Commissioners were charged with the job of uniting “townlands to be a union for relief of the poor.” The provision was made for valuation of each separate tenement, that is, each piece of land held by an owner or any kind of permanent property. The first valuation attempt was unsatisfactory, and another was made between 1848 and 1865, which superseded previous attempts.
The printed Griffith valuation contains the following information (photocopy of sample page) in tabular form:
Column No.
- Parishes townlands and occupiers
- No. and letters of reference to map
- Immediate lessors
- Description of tenement
- Content of land (acres, roods and perches)
- Net Annual Value: land, buildings total
The areas of Poor law crossed county boundaries.
A Names index indicating the number of times a surname occurs in the Tithe Composition Books and Primary Valuation of Tenements is available at County Library. There are two sequences - alphabetical and barony, The letter T indicates the Tithe Applotment while G indicates Griffiths.
The Tithe Applotment Books
The Tithe Composition Applotment Books are surveys of land holdings carried out in every rural parish between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which each occupier was to pay in tithes, the tax on agricultural produce levied for the support of the Established Church. The Tithe Composition Act of 1823 attempted to reform an earlier system of tithe collection by converting the tithe into a single fixed payment in money rather than in kind.
Under the new system, Commissioners were appointed for each parish to calculate the tithes that should be paid. The Tithe Applotment Books record the findings of the commissioners and their legacy is a major source of information on early nineteenth century history. It is not a complete listing of the inhabitants of the parish since commissioners were concerned only with tithe payers. The format was not uniform, but typically arranged in tabular form as follows:
Column No.
- Occupiers name
- Classification of land (4 classes)
- Amount of tithe
The Tithe Composition Books are an important pre-Griffith Valuation Source. These are important because they are the first national listing of land occupiers since the seventeenth century providing information on the quality of land and showing pre-Ordnance Survey territorial divisions, which would disappear in the next decade.
Census of Ireland(1813/ 1821/1831/1841/1851/1861/1881/1891/1901/1911)
The Census reports are the official compilations of population figures which also contain various other statistics. The primary units used were counties and baronies. The first official Census of Ireland, 1813 – 1815 is incomplete, however the 1821 census is more comprehensive. Data was collected on houses, inhabitants, ages, occupations, farm size. The Census also provides information on emigration and statistics on education and literacy some of which comes under the heading “observation”.
The standards of the 1831 Census are lower than that of 1821, however by far the most reliable for the first half of the 19th century is that of 1841. It is arranged by county and provides Tables of ages, education, marriage, house accommodation and occupations.
The new Ordnance Survey maps were used to determine the precise locations for townlands and upwards to county and province. Areas of 20 houses or more were considered to be Towns, while houses were classified by size and condition, i.e. Class 4 = mud cabins with one room or Class 2 = good farm or town houses
Census records for 1901 and 1911 are now available online. For Offaly search for King's County.
Ordnance Survey
The Ordnance Survey was established in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, 1824 and assigned the task to delimit the 60,000 townlands in Ireland. This was completed in 1846 with a total of 1,906 sheets produced. The maps are a scale of six inches to one statute mile with supplementary large scale maps. Boundaries of counties, baronies, civil parishes and townlands defined.
Useful resources for the study of local history or genealogical research
1. Tracing the past / William Nolan
- Good introduction to the study of local history.
- Clear concise explanation of all major original sources and terms.
2. Irish records sources for family local history / James G. Ryan
- Ancestry Pubs. 1988
- Lists sources and institution likely to be of help.
- Good maps (clear) of parish, barony, boundaries - helpful introduction
3. Irish Genealogy: a record finder / edited by Donal F. Begley
- Chapters devoted to: directories, census returns, newspapers etc.
- Useful section ‘special report on surnames’