A Research Technique For Locating Townlands of One’s Irish Ancestors

Using Griffith’s Surname Index

Griffith's Valuations lists the assessment for every piece of land and the names of every landowner and leaseholder in the entire country. Between 1848 and 1864, all land in Ireland was surveyed. Donn Devine, Certified Genealogist CG [SM], GCI [SM], Archivist for the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware published a technique described in an article he had written in his newspaper column. As Donn explains:

What makes Griffith's particularly useful is the surname index prepared by the National Library of Ireland, sometimes called the Householder Index…. If you have the family names of a couple married in Ireland and at least one of them is not one of the more frequently occurring surnames, you can use the Householder Index to zero in on a few localities where both names are found, so you can make a detailed search in the parish registers for those places...

Donn also notes in a recent communication:

A similar strategy may be used with the CD-ROM Index to Griffith's Valuation of Ireland (if the entries you're seeking are not among the omitted portions).

While searching for the ancestral home of my great grandfather Edward Hart who married Bridget Hannon in County Galway, Ireland ca. 1846, I expanded Donn’s technique to include eighteen surnames found on two descendant charts my father had constructed for his Hart and Hannon lines. He had said that his ancestors came not far from the Galway, Roscommon, Mayo borders. Unfortunately he listed few places or dates. I reasoned, however, that, if tabulated the number of times each of these surnames appeared in Griffith’s Index, the search mercifully might be narrowed.

Indeed it was. As shown in the table below, the parishes where most of the names appeared in the Index were Killursa, Cargin, and Ballynakill in that order. The fact that Killursa and Cargin parishes are contiguous and near the County Galway/Mayo border seemed to strengthen the case for searching the names of the leaseholders in the townlands of this area in Griffith’s Valuations. Other evidence uncovered subsequently verified that Luggawannia, a townland in Cargin Parish, was the home for our Hart ancestors. Our Hannon ancestors most likely came from several townlands in Killursa parish.

 

Index of Households in Griffith’s Valuation, Co. Galway [FHL #0919006)

County

Barony

Barony

Barony

Barony

Barony

Barony

Galway

Clare

Ballymoe

Clare

Clare

Clare

Dunmore

Parish

Parish

Parish

Parish

Parish

Parish

Annaghdown

Ballynakill

Cargin

Killursa

Tuam

Dunmore

Anderson

G

Biggins

G 1

Burke

G (43) T

G (16)

G (2)

G (6) T

G (13) T

G (20)

Cassidy

G (2) T

G (1)

Concannon

T

G (4)

G (6) T

Craven

G (3) T

G (2)

G (2)

G (2)

Eagan

T

G (5)

G (I)

G (2)

G (2) T

Earner

G (5)

Hannon

G (6)

G (2) T

G (4)

G (2)

Hart

G (2) T

G (2)

G (I)

T

G (2)

Hession

G (7) T

G (5)

G (4) T

Hynes

G (5)

G (4) T

G (5)

T

T

Kyle

Lally

G (2)

G (4) T

G (I)

G (I)

G (2)

G (3) T

Lee

G (40)

G (16)

McHugh

T

G (2)

G (4) T

G (11) T

Mullally

G (1)

G (2)

Newell

G (9) T

G (I)

G (4)

G (2)

G = Name Appears; Digit = number of times name appears.

T = name appears on Tithe Applotment List at least once

 

Admittedly, use of this research tool seems much like looking for a needle in a haystack but it does give some direction and order to the search. For those who have run into dead ends while researching their ancestors, Donn Devine’s technique and/or its expanded version could lead some to find the localities in Ireland where they lived. Given the closeness of the early Irish Wilmington community, researchers may wish to include the surnames of baptismal sponsors and wedding witnesses when using the expanded technique. It was not uncommon for them to have come from the same area.

Joseph M. Lalley, Jr.

March 2003