Researching Irish ancestors can be tricky – a great deal of records, including wills, parish records and the censuses of 1821–1891, have been lost. (The census returns were destroyed in a fire during the Irish War of Independence in 1922 and other documents during World War One.) Furthermore, although registration of non-Catholic marriages took place from 1845, civil registration for the whole population did not begin until as comparatively late as 1864.

Fortunately, there are other records that can be consulted. Irish land and property valuation exercises began in the 1820s and provide valuable information. One of these is Griffith’s Valuation (also known as the Primary Valuation of Tenements), which covers the years 1847–1864 and which valued individual Irish property separately for the first time. Previous surveys had focused on the larger houses of the gentry.

Surveyor and engineer Richard John Griffith’s research was carried out as a basis for levying a local system of fair taxation and poor rates (for the support of the poor and destitute within each Poor Law Union). In the process or collecting this information, Valuation of Tenements compilers established the value of land and buildings in all Ireland and collected information about landlords (although bear in mind that this may not be a property’s actual owner) and their tenants. Every property holder in the country was listed, as were their houses, fields and gardens, and the information detailed in a printed volume for each barony or Poor Law Union. These have been digitised and the records and can be searched and viewed online at www.thegenealogist.co.uk.

The basis of Griffith’s survey is the townland, a basic territorial unit and smallest unit of civil administration in Ireland, of which there are over 60,000 listed. Information is organised by street, according to the Ordnance Survey maps of which Griffith had earlier managed the production.

The aforementioned baronies were introduced by the Normans, and each barony contained a number of parishes.

As well as providing information about Irish social history, comparative wealth and where the population lived in the 19th century, Griffith’s Valuation is also important as it gives researchers a picture of Ireland in the years following the disastrous famine years of the 1840s, when around a quarter of Ireland’s population died or emigrated.

As mentioned above, there are other sources – largely church and estate records &ndash: which family and social historians can use to supplement Griffith’s, such as church records and tithe applotment books. The latter, compiled between 1823 and 1837, are a vital source for genealogists researching the years before the Irish famine and were collated to determine how much money agricultural holding occupiers should pay to the Church of Ireland in tithes.

However, Griffith’s Valuation is perhaps the best place to start researching Irish forebears. Go to www.thegenealogist.co.uk to search by forename, surname, Irish county and barony.

In the print edition
Read more about British and Irish land records, and Jill Morris’ article on non-Christian religions in Britain, in Issue 4 of Discover Your Ancestors, See discoveryourancestors.co.uk