Land Commission

Hermy

This article from John Grenham from three years ago popped up on Facebook.
Just wondering has anyone here had any dealings with the Land Commission or know anything about these records?

pinkypinky

I don't know anything more than John's article says but I have seen a Land Commission document, which survives in the private archive of some people whose land was distributed to it. There's great genealogy on it because the particular land was originally granted to a widow and then passed on to her married daughter, so we get a few different names.

Has anyone tried a Freedom of Information on particular documents, I wonder?

If the HSE will give me medical records of my ancestor who only died in 1949, why are much older land records so contentious? I suspect the truth is that they're totally uncatalogued and disorganised and the Dept. has neither the time, staff nor inclination to get it sorted. A bit like the "obstacles" to releasing the 1926 census early.

Hermy

The Facebook comments seemed to suggest a conspiracy involving land being shared among the political classes of the time and a desire to keep that under wraps but for genealogy's sake I'd prefer that it is just a lack of resources preventing them from being made available.
Either way I hope that they are in safe and secure storage.

pedroeibar1

This topic raises its head every so often. AFAIK the records are safely housed in PortLaoise. I know that elsewhere some more recent govt. records cannot be accessed because they were stored in an area that contained asbestos and have to be professionally ‘decontaminated’ before they can be seen. I think the political cronyism claim is a bit of a conspiracy theory, doubtlessly some went on but the real reason I suspect is that the records are uncategorized, almost impossible to retrieve and access is discouraged for practicality and cost reasons.
I’ve had some luck on Nick Redan’s site on a much earlier period land transfer detailing ‘widow and ‘sole heir’ that gave me another line of proof to establish a family relationship.

pjproby

Surely the rumour has always been that Land Commission records has been destroyed as the various files, detailing neighbourly bile, would even embarrass the Stasi

pinkypinky

I did meet a history phd who got access to certain records while working on his thesis, a recently graduated person. So they do still exist.