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Strategies for Using the Landed Estates Database

3 Jan By Leave a Comment

The University of Ireland Galway has developed a Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database covering estates in counties Clare, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary and Waterford. It documents historic estate houses, families and records from c1700 through 1914, opening up new research avenues for family historians.

The database can be searched by Estate, Family and Houses. The Estates included those with over 500 acres, although when interconnected with large estates, smaller ones are also listed. There are over 4500 Houses and 2700 Families currently in the database. There are alphabetical links which directs the researcher to the appropriate page. There is also a Search feature which does allow for a word search in the entire database.

The various searches are cross referenced with each other; making this feature one of the most important on this website.

Research Strategies for the Cross Reference Listings

The Registry of Deeds can record marriages as well as layers of leases. This can be confusing. By taking the names mentioned in the deeds and comparing them with the database, the chances are good family and social relationships will begin to emerge more clearly.

Often connections between various landed families are not obvious. The database includes maps showing where the estates were located which may give you extra clues to connect your tenant family with another one with the same surname a few miles away.

When studying the townland names, it is important to remember these did change. Townland names and boundaries were not officially set until the 1830s by the Ordnance Survey. A search may help you identify places no longer on an official map.

The cross references is also helpful in determining if a landed family had several estates. If tenants were moved between the estates for work, this can explain migration patterns.

Reference Listings in the Database

For the genealogist, the References are the very core of this database. These include Archival Sources, such as manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland; Contemporary Printed Sources, such as Griffith’s Primary Valuation or the Parliamentary Papers; and Modern Printed Sources, such as local periodicals. It is within these References that the survival of estate papers can be identified. That in itself is the end game for most of our research.

IGSI Estate Records Index

29 Oct By Leave a Comment

The Irish Genealogical Society International (IGSI): http://irishgenealogical.org is the major Irish genealogical society in the USA. One of their projects to make records more accessible is the “Estate Records Index” project.

Estate records are the landlord business papers of the estate and may include lease agreements and rent ledgers. These may document the average tenant farmer, and are an important, although underutilized resource. Prior to the advent of parish registers, the estate records are about the only record available to document the common family.

The difficulty with these types of records is they are scattered at different archives, no index, and often of little genealogically valuable; as not all estate records lists tenants. To find records, you have to know the townland or parish your ancestor lived in, and the landlord’s name. This is where the IGSI “Estate Records Index” is a major contribution.

IGSI has funded a prominent Irish genealogist to go through the estate records housed at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin, and inventory the valuable ones. Most of the volumes are by county and then by civil parish and by landlord/estate. Counties include: Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo, Waterford, Westmeath and Wicklow. Individual estates include: “Lismore – Cork (Bandon Area), Tipperary; and the Inchiquin Peninsula – Clare, Limerick, Tipperary.” The prices are reasonable at between $7-$25 USD. They can be ordered from the IGSI Bookstore link on the website.

I personally use these inventories. Once I have found an estate of interest, then I contact an agent working out of the National Library of Ireland: http://www.nli.ie

The “Estate Records Index” series is worth investing in for your particular county research needs. For any library with an Irish collection, the entire series is worth purchasing.

Landed Estates Database

13 Jul By Leave a Comment

One of the major sources I use after I’ve exhausted church and tax records for an area are the landlord papers. These are termed “estate papers” and are basically the private papers of the local estate where the tenants leased and rented their homes and farms. In these papers I look for lease agreements, and especially rent books. They can be deposited anywhere or not preserved at all. Remember, these are private family papers, and historically there would be little reason for the landed families to think they would ever be used for genealogical purposes.

The problem has always been identifying where papers have been deposited. Once you know the landlord or land owner of a townland, then you are ready to actually begin the search for any deposited papers. The job is easier for western Ireland with the “Landed Estates Database”:

This is an online database of all Landed Estates in Connacht and Munster provinces: www.landedestates.ie  If this link doesn’t work, then try the longer one: http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp   The database covers: Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo in Connaught Province; and Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick,

Tipperay and Waterford in Munster Province. It contains references to over 1,450 houses and 1,650 estates. The database is maintained by the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The “Landed Estates Database” provides information, and pictures on the estate, the estate houses, documentary sources, and a list of estate records from about 1700 through 1914. While not necessarily aimed at the family historian, the database can be used for our purposes just fine. I use it on a regular base in my client research.

This database brings the landlord-tenant relationship alive as you have hands on information to the estate which affected your ancestors. If rent or lease books survive, then the next step is to have them searched.

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