Locating Properties and Families in a Townland or Street 1831 to 1901

Locating Properties and Families in a Townland or Street 1831 to 1901

Below is a table that summarises the key records involved in this process.

WHERE TO FIND THE SOURCES*	SOURCE	MAPS IN PRONI
Manuscript books available only in PRONI: FIN/5/A.	Tithe Applotment Books 1820/30s	No maps available.
Manuscript books available only in PRONI: VAL/1/B.	Townland Valuation 1830s	VAL/1/A 6 inch maps for rural areas. VAL/1/D large scale town maps
Printed books available in PRONI and libraries. Manuscript books available only in PRONI: VAL/2/B.	Griffith’s [Tenement] Valuation c.1860	VAL/2/A 6 inch maps for rural areas. VAL/2/D large scale town maps
Manuscript books available only in PRONI: VAL/12/B.	Griffith’s Revision Books from c.1860 onwards.	VAL/12/D 6 inch maps for rural areas. VAL/12/E large scale town maps
The 1911 Census is online at the NAI website and the 1901 Census is to follow shortly.	1901 Census Returns 1911 Census Returns

* Note that all of these sources are used in the Ballymoney Town, Killyramer and Seacon locality studies.

The Griffith's [Tenement] Valuation of c.1860 and its subsequent revisions from c.1860 [generally known as the Griffith's Revision Books] allow us to locate individual properties within a townland or a street at particular times throughout the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Each property is numbered within the valuation books and these same numbers are shown on the accompanying valuation maps which enables the identification of the precise location of a house or a holding on the map and, ultimately, on the ground.

The census records of 1901 and 1911 provide us with details of the families resident in each townland or street at that time as well as information about their houses and outbuildings. Each house is numbered but it is important to realise that these numbers are not street numbers, they simply reflect the order that the houses were listed in the House and Building Return [Form B1 in the Census]. Furthermore the census numbers do not relate to the numbers in the valuation records. Fortunately, the valuation numbers and the census numbers can be cross-referenced thus allowing us to identify the location of the “census” houses on the valuation maps. This is possible because the houses listed in the census tend to follow a geographical order reflecting the "journey" of the enumerator around a townland or along a street. Likewise the properties in the Griffith's Valuation reflect the "journey" of the valuer around the same townland or street c.1858/59; a route that was continued in the subsequent Griffith's Revision Books.

This system does not work so well for families who are not landholders. In my experience many families, where the head of household was a labourer, did not dwell long enough in a townland or street to be picked up by the valuers recording changes in the occupants of properties between 1860 and 1901. In such cases birth, marriage and death registers may be the only way of finding out where these families were living in the latter part of the nineteenth century and, only in some cases, will you be able to identify exactly, where they were living within a townland or in a street.

The Griffith’s [Tenement] Valuation with its subsequent revisions and accompanying maps is the key to this process for the second half of the nineteenth century. Equally it is the key to the process in the first half of the century from c.1830. Unfortunately, we do not have valuation revisions for this earlier period, nor are the valuations as detailed. Nevertheless, some “connections” can be made between the Tithe Applotment Books and the c.1860 Griffith’s [Tenement] valuation.

The earlier sources of 1803, 1796, 1740 and 1669 can help in identifying names but tying these names to precise locations is not really possible.