Previous owners of land, how far back can I check?

R0C

No idea if this is the right place to post this, so mods feel free to move it!

Anyway, I'm doing some historical research into my local area and my family tree at the moment. I have been viewing the 6" 1800s maps of the land my family own on osi.ie and I see some buildings, etc on the land that are completely gone today.

I am very curious to know who previously owned my land, and if at all possible, who owned/lived in the houses that were on the land.

I know you can pay PRA/Land Registry and you can see 'something', but I'm not sure what exactly the Land Registry maps can tell me, will they show me who previously owned this land.

My family have owned it through the 1900s, so I'm looking for info from the 1800s or older if possible.

Does anyone know where to get information of this sort?

The land is in Connacht.

Thanks.

John_F

did you try http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

R0C

Thanks for the link. I hadn't checked that, but I can see now that one landlord owned all of that townland which includes my land.

I'm still not sure who lived in the houses, if they were even occupied then.
I've looked up the townland and none of the people in it are shown as renting a house, all are just renting other patches of land.

Is there any other resource to figure who may have occupied the houses?

John_F

i think the mother was saying before about being able to access a census of an area but only when all the people recorded in the census have past away (legal reason i presume) i dont have a link to it though. What about church records??

reilig

You'll get it in the census. didn't they recently put online the census that goes back to famine times? It will have details of all of the people living in various houses in various townlands, how much land they owned, what they worked at etc. I've looked at it for my own family and area and its very interesting.

R0C

The only census I know of is the 1901 and 1911. As far as I know, all the others were destroyed so there never will be any other census info.

I don't know about Church records, I've viewed some at my local Church in the past and all they had was the townland, baptism date, and death date. From what I saw, my parish didn't have specific addresses that you could tie a person to a house, and they're all handwritten in alphabetical order by name, so it'd be very difficult to find people in the right townland.

who the fug

1901 and 1911 census are on line.

Look at the deeds to the farm, wealth of information there

jfh

did you check griffiths valuation 1855?

bob123456

Land Cancelled Land Books, or Cancellation Books

Valuation office at the Irish Life Center or
http://www.valoff.ie/index.html

Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS)
http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=3846&p=topics.researchresources.genealogy-20-help

Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street Lower, Dublin 1
Tel: +353-1 817 1000
Fax: +353-1 817 1180
E-mail: info@valoff.ie
Public Office Opening Hours: Monday to Friday-9.15am to 4.30pm

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/records/land/val.htm

Valuation Office Records

The Valuation Office, set up to carry out the original Primary Valuation, is still in existence, and has two related sets of records which are potentially valuable. The first of these are the notebooks used by the original Valuation surveyors, consisting of field books, house books and tenure books. All three record a map reference for the holdings they deal with, as in the published Valuation. The field books then record information on the size and quality of the holding, the house books record the occupiers' names and the measurements of any buildings on their holdings, and the tenure books give the annual rent paid and the legal basis on which the holding is occupied, whether by lease or at will.

The tenure books also give the year of any lease, useful to know before searching estate papers or The Registry of Deeds. As well as containing information such as this, which does not appear in the published Valuation, the valuers' notebooks can also be useful in documenting any changes in occupation between the initial survey and the published results, for instance if a family emigrated in the years immediately before publication, since they pre-date the final publication itself by several years. Unfortunately, they are not extant for all areas. The National Archives now houses those which survive for the Republic of Ireland. Those covering Northern Ireland are now to be found in The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland .

The Valuation Office itself, at the Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street Lower, Dublin 1, contains the second set of useful records. These are the Cancelled Land Books and Current Land Books, giving details of all changes in the holdings, from the time of the Primary Valuation up to the present day. Any variations in the size or status of the holding, the names of the occupier or lessor, or the valuation itself are given in the revisions carried out every few years.

The Books can be very useful in pinpointing a possible date of death or emigration, or in identifying a living relative. A large majority of those who were in occupation of a holding by the 1890s, when the Land Acts began to subsidise the purchase of the land by its tenant farmers, have descendants or relatives still living in the same area. The Cancelled Land Books for Northern Ireland are now in The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.