Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Ancestry.com has added new Irish records and enhanced some of their existing Irish records. There are two new sets of records and two sets of records that have been revised. One of the new sets of records is called “Ordnance Survey Maps 1824-1846”. This collection consists of nearly two thousand very detailed (six inches per mile) maps that were created before and during the Irish Potato Famine. The maps were originally used for land valuation for tax assessment purposes. Since the maps are so detailed, you may be able to pinpoint the exact location where your ancestors lived during the time that the maps were drawn.
The other set of new records is called “Lawrence Collection of Photographs, 1870-1910”. This database of twenty one thousand photographs from the Lawrence collection has been indexed so that you can search them by subject, location, and county. The photographs are beautiful, and they are reproduced from glass- plate negatives that are housed in the National Library of Ireland. Twenty one thousand is a lot of photographs, so be forewarned – you may be tempted to spend hours looking at them once you start because they are very interesting.
Ancestry.com has updated its collection entitled “Tithe Applotment Books 1823-1837”. This unique collection of records comes from a time when the Church of Ireland required all landowners to make a donation (tithe) to the Church regardless of their religious affiliation. The donation amount was calculated according to the average price of wheat and oats. I am sure that some landowners, particularly those that were not affiliated with the Church, were not too pleased when they were asked to give money to the Church. The one million records in the Tithe Applotment Books include each landowner’s name, the county, parish, townland, and year of enumeration.
The collection of records titled “Griffith’s Valuation 1848-1864” has also been updated. This collection contains records of approximately one million people, and was created initially as a basis for levying taxes. Since no census data is available for the time period covered by these records, they are an important genealogical research tool for people that had ancestors living in Ireland during that time period.
Do the new or updated Irish records on Ancestry.com hold clues to your family’s Irish heritage?