Valuation
Records
Valuation
records provide us with information on properties
within a townland or a street. Remember the information
on each of the properties was collected for taxation
purposes. Despite this limitation, the records provide
us with important place information
on land, houses and people which:
- allow
us to see, exactly, where our ancestors lived during
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries;
- tell
us something about the kind of properties our ancestors
were inhabiting;
-
provide us with evidence of change in properties
over a period covering c.1860 to the 1990s.
- act
as a substitute census for the missing official
census records in Ireland. - read
more.
The
first general valuation of all houses and holdings
in Ireland, officially known as the Primary Valuation
of Ireland, was undertaken during the period 1846–64.
This valuation became better known as the Griffith’s
Valuation after the man in charge - Sir Richard
Griffith [1784-1878]. Completion dates for the Griffith's
Valuation vary throughout the country. Most in Ulster
date from the late 1850s to the early 1860s. The Griffith's
Valuation was revised "annually" during
the period c.1860 to c.1930. A new General Revaluation
of Northern Ireland took place in 1935 followed by
subsequent revisions and revaluations up to 1993.
There was also an earlier Townland Valuation carried
out in the 1830s which, despite its limitations, can
be of use to family and local historians - see diagram
below.
As
the diagram above shows, PRONI holds records relating
to the valuation of property in Northern Ireland from
the 1830s to 1993. See PRONI Information Leaflets
- Valuation
Records & Griffith's
Valuation Records. The Griffith's 1846-64
Printed Valuation, with accompanying Six Inch Valuation
Maps, for all of Ireland is available online at the
askaboutireland website - read
more. The c.1860-c.1930 Griffith's Valuation Revision
Field Books are now available online from PRONI and
cover the six counties of Northern Ireland. I have
included direct links to these two sites plus the
1901/1911 Census website.
Note
that the
askaboutireland.ie website, as well as providing copies
of pages for every townland in Ireland with accompanying
maps, is also an "exact match" database
providing an important census substitute for the middle
of the nineteenth century.
I have, therefore, created Excel and PDF databases
for [.Co. Londonderry Excel
PDF
]
[North & Mid Antrim Excel
PDF]
[North &Mid Tyrone Excel
PDF
] - the
area of Ulster covered by this website. Here I have
used standardised spellings which group together variant
spellings of a name - read
more.
For
those of you not so familiar with Valuation Records,
the tables below contain links to a number of explanatory
read more papers on each
of the valuations. I have included a rural and an
urban example for each of the valuations covering
the period c.1830 to c.1973, using the townland of
Gorteade, near Upperlands in South Derry and in the
case of a street in a town - Stone Row Upper in the
Town of Coleraine. These examples should help you
to read, understand and interpret the information
in the various Valuation Books, link this book information
to the Valuation Maps and, most importantly, match
the numbering of properties and families in the Valuation
Books and Maps to the numbering in the 1901 and 1911
Census Returns. It is probably best to begin with
the rural example. Also, if you are a beginner to
valuation records, I would recommend that you follow
the order of the rural and urban examples as set out
in the tables below.
Griffith's
Printed Valuation [1846-64]
- read
more. Griffith's Valuation Field
Books [VAL/2/B] - read
more.
Valuation
Revision Books [c.1860-c.1930] [Also known as the
Griffith's Revision Books]
- read
more.
If
you want to carry on looking for people and where
they lived in a locality after 1930 then it will be
necessary to switch to the Books and Maps of the
General Revaluation of Northern Ireland. Note
that these books and maps are only available
in PRONI, Belfast.
General
Revaluation of Northern Ireland
[1935-1972] - read
more.
If
you want to go back in time to the earlier part of
the nineteenth century then you will need to consult
the 1830s Townland Valuation. Again, these are only
available in PRONI, Belfast.
Townland
Valuation [1830s] - read
more.
Also,
you might want to look at this webpage 1830s
Townland Valuation [Examples of some townlands from
Co. Londonderry and North Antrim] which contains
copies of some pages from the 1830s Townland Valuation
Books for a selection of townlands in Counties Antrim
and Londonderry. There are also links on this page
to the later c.1860 Griffith' s Valuation for each
townland which will allow you to match some names
and locations in the 1830s Townland Valuation with
those in the later c.1860 Griffith's Valuation.
Here
are some more rural and urban examples that I created
for earlier versions of this website.
I used the townland of Seacon More, near Ballymoney
to illustrate various points about the valuation records
in rural areas 1830 to c.1930.
I
have also added an urban example - Church Street,
Coleraine.
Copyright 2020 W.Macafee.
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