Understanding the importance of our land divisions and sense of place to local people in rural Ireland (irrespective of location) are crucial to success in Irish genealogy. This presentation explores the different administrative divisions: e.g. townland, barony, parish, County, Poor Law Union, etc, their origins, how they relate to each other, and their relevance and usage in the historical records.

Land records are an extremely important part of genealogical research in Ireland due to the destruction of the majority of nineteenth-century census records. We will look at Griffith’s Valuation, the first truly comprehensive survey of property in Ireland, which covers the period 1848 to 1864, as well as the subsequent Valuation Revision (or Cancelled) Books

The documents generated by the management of landed estates are among the most valuable of records for the local and family historian. This talk will look at the background to landed estates in Ireland, before going on to discuss the more useful sources found in estate collections.

In 1708 the Registry of Deeds was established in Dublin as a repository for all kinds of documents relating to the transfer of title to land, including leases from landlord to tenant. This talk will explain how to maximise your research time in this important, but often overlooked archive.