How reliable is Griffiths valuation

Deeec

Ive traced my my family back to the 1860's and know they were living on the same land I live on now. Im trying to go further back and see if a further generation lived here. One of the problems I face is lots of families in the area had the same surname but I cant link any of them to my family but its highly probable they were related.

Griffiths valuation has our plot of land being rented out to the local English landlord ( but owned by another landlord )which would be very unusual I would imagine - I cant see what use this relatively small plot of land and cottage would be to him and it is away from his estate. Now this could be very wrong in that other families in the area are marked as occupying the wrong property on the Griffiths map. Some of these families ( 3 families )occupy the same farms today - I have spoke to them on this and they have confirmed the map references are wrong. For this reason I feel I have to disregard what Griffiths maps are telling me for this area - the names of the people living in the area are probably right but they are referenced wrong to the map.

I have read before that there are different versions - the one Im using is on askaboutireland.ie. Should I be using a different map on another website?

This one has puzzled me for years!

55Gem

I believe only Find My Past has the map current with the Valuation, I've never seen it myself, and like you have sometimes had issues with the map on askaboutireland, but it's usually not too far off.

This article is very good for understanding and seeing what you can learn from GV

Griffiths.PDF (leitrim-roscommon.com)

pinkypinky

You've made some assumptions which aren't necessarily correct. Landlords (most of whom were not actually English) owned land in many different places. Middlemen were commonly used to rent large parcels of land out to smaller tenants.

The maps on askaboutireland are a generation later than GV as the originals were not considered good enough for digitisation. However, if your family was on the same land for many generations, there's no reason to think that the map is wrong. Of course, parcels of land might have been traded over time. To be sure, you'd need to trace back from modern times to GV in the Valuation Office (Irish Life complex, Abbey St, Dublin).

55Gem is right about the FMP maps but they're hard to search because they're not linked to the actual published valuation.

Lime Tree Farm

When you locate your farm on the Griffith's Map (askaboutIreland), look to the top right of the map for map options/versions. Griffith's maps took a number of years to compile, land parcel numbers changed by the time the maps were updated

Furze99

If you want to get down & dirty, head to the National Archives in Dublin and start looking through the Valuation Office records. They are voluminous, as might be expected land valuation was an ongoing process with revisions and corrections. It was never a snapshot like a census, captured over a day or a few short days.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118759041#Comment_118759041

Thank your for your reply Pinkypinky. In this case I know the landlord mentioned was English - I know the full history of his large Estate as it was in a neighbouring townland. He lived in London and spent a few months of the year in Ireland. Our property though was outside of his estate. I know its possible he could have been renting it off the other landlord for some purpose but it just looks odd that our property appears to be the only property he rented in our townland - it was only a small patch of land, yard and cottage. Also on the valuation of tenements listing there is no buildings valued - but on the map there clearly was a house and yard.

Anyway I think the valuation office may be the best option for me to try and figure this out.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118759063#Comment_118759063

Thanks Lime Tree Farm. I have tried this but the 3 versions of maps all have the same references.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118759167#Comment_118759167

Yep I think this will have to be my next step.

pinkypinky

Good to have done the background research on the landlord - it often yields useful info.

Just for the benefit of others reading this thread, the Valuation Office is separate from the National Archives.

kildarejohn

Deec - another onliine source you might check before your visit to Val Off is the historic maps on OSI.ie. To be sure you are looking at the right plot number, you could check the area (acres/roods/perches) off the Grif Val and see if it matches with area shown on 25" map.

paddysdream

Seen the same issue here locally with Griffiths maps and land parcel numbers .The numbers on the map don't seem to correlate correctly at times .

I have only seen the ask about ireland maps and lists and not sure what version the map used is .

Easy way to check is to see what area is for example given for Joe Bloggs farm at plot number 5 on the list and see if that correlates to the amount of ground on plot number 5 on the map .

Some around here are very obviously incorrect .

Most of the adjoining farms to me would still be owned by the same family as in 1850 and most would be still farming almost the same area etc.