Irish Records – Page 3

Irish Registry of Deed Indexes (1708-1929)

There are two manuscript indexes to the Registry of Deeds on microfilm at the Family History Library, 1708-1929 (FHL) and an ongoing indexing project online. Understanding these indexes is your key to this valuable set of records.

The “Surname Index” (Grantor Index) is alphabetical by first letter of the seller’s name. This is a limitation as deeds are usually a tangle of owners, lessors and sub-lessors. It is arranged by time periods. Another limitation is that it does not identify the county or townland of the property until after 1833.

The “Lands Index” (County Index) is arranged geographically. The handwriting can be terrible or the quality of the microfilming problematic. This index is currently only way to access all registered transactions for a specific place.

The Lands Index is divided by county, Corporation Town, time period with townlands listed by first letter. From 1828 the County Index divides entries by barony within a county. From 1828, the cities and Corporation Towns are listed separately. From 1832, the year of registration is given in the index.

The Lands Index lists volume, page and memorial number of the transaction. Once you have the reference, then you are ready to examine the deed books on microfilm at the FHL.

The “Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland”: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~registryofdeeds is an online index being compiled by volunteers. The purpose of the project is to index all of the names that appear in the memorial books at the Registry of Deeds. This includes wills and marriage settlements. The index can be searched by name, grantor, family name and memorial number.

Deed index research can be tedious, but it is a necessary evil in comprehensive Irish genealogy.

The Congregational Union of Ireland

22 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

The Congregational Church known as “Independents” began as a Separatist movement from the Church of England after 1558. They rejected many Anglican practices, suffering greatly for their convictions. They believed in liberty of conscience, and the independence of each congregation. They first appeared in Ireland in 1646-7 and returned in force with Oliver Cromwell. English Separatists would be be the founders of New England for their own religious freedom (not anybody else’s).

In Ireland, they survived as a minor dissenting sect, and in 1695 there were six Independent congregations. They remained a small church, being depleted through emigration and death. This changed during the Ulster Revival of 1859, brought over from Scotland. At that time many congregations were founded. The Mother Church for all of Ireland is the Donegall Street Congregational Church in Belfast, even though other congregations are older. By 1901 there were 10,000 Congregationalists in Ireland.

Church registers can be sketchy with many registers surviving only from the 1880s. Others do start early, but have gaps. Other records have been disposed over the years. Still others in Ulster were destroyed in the World War II bombing raids. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI): www.proni.gov.uk houses many Congregational Church registers.

The earliest extant records for the Congregational Union of Ireland: www.cuofi.com date from 1829 to 1843. This archive of records has been inventoried in the PRONI online guide Introduction: Congregational Union of Ireland (2007). Other records include the denominational magazine The Irish Congregational Magazine (1861-76) with copies at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast: http://www.linenhall.com

Those Irish Theosophists

21 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

Within Ireland has always been a class of educated intellectuals who actively explored mysticism in both the Eastern and Western Occult traditions. This class often overlapped into commonly known poets, painters, Irish Nationalists and profound thinkers in Irish culture. The Theosophical Society (TS), as a non-sectarian organization was attractive to this group of seekers.

The TS is part of the occult tradition. In this sense, occult is used in its original meaning as “hidden.” It’s the opposite of apocalypse, which means “revealed.” The TS was founded in New York City in 1875 by Russian mystic Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-91), American Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), and Dublin born immigrant William Q. Judge (1851-96). Blavatsky claimed she had contact with the “mahatmas.” These were evolved beings who participated in the divine plan for all ages. She was their messenger to deliver the Ancient Wisdom tradition to a modern audience. Her most influential books Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), would inform generations of occult thinkers. They would also help birth the modern New Age Movement. The TS would help initiate a Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and many of its members were linked with the Indian Independence Movement.

Many of the early Theosophists were Irish born. In 1885, the Dublin Hermetic Society was founded. The next year it would be replaced by a Theosophical Lodge. A Theosophical commune located in Dublin was known as “The Household” (1891-96): www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/household.html Members published The Irish Theosophist (1892-97): www.theosophycanada.com/irish-theosophist.php

There are two main branches of the original TS society. The Theosophical Society, headquartered in Chadyr, India: www.ts-adyar.org and the Theosophical Society in America: www.theosophical.org Both have libraries and old record collections. An independent organization is The Theosophical Society in Ireland: http://theosophy.ie

Palatine Germans in Ireland

18 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

If may be surprised to learn your Irish ancestor actually had German roots. This is a fascinating story.

The Rhineland Palatinate is now a part of Germany. In 1709 many left seeking a better life.Of the 10,000 Protestant immigrants, one third emigrated to New York and North Carolina. Another third went to England and the Caribbean. The last third went to Ireland. About 800 families were settled on the estates of Protestant landlords. Most were on the Southwell Estate near Rathkeale, County Limerick. Descendants would immigrate to what would become Ontario. A second colony went to County Wexford at Old Ross and Gorey.

For genealogical purposes, much reference material is available. These include: Henry Z. Jones The Palatine Families of Ireland (1990); Patrick J. O’Connor’s People Make Places: The Story of the Irish Palatines (1996) and Carolyn A. Heald’s The Irish Palatines in Ontario: Religion, Ethnicity and Rural Migration (1994), and Eula C. Lapp To Their Heirs Forever (1977). Each of these explores migrations of the Palatines in and then out of Ireland. Carolyn A. Heald’s article “Researching Irish Palatines in Ireland and Ontario” in The Irish At Home and Abroad, 4, #2 (1997): 64-71, brings together sources from which to trace these families.

The Internet is an excellent place to begin your research. The Irish Palatine Association in Rathkeale operates the Irish Palatine Heritage Centre: http://irishpalatines.org Their goal is to preserve history and culture. The Ontario Genealogical Society has a special Irish Palatine Interest Group dedicated to research: http://web.mac.com/bobfizzell/SIG-IP/HomeSIG-IP.html Use the key words “Ireland Palatine” or “Irish Palatine” and you will discover fascinating websites.

Did You Look at the Session Minutes?

17 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

Session minutes of Presbyterian churches concern the daily affairs of the congregation and often predate the registers of births and marriages by as much as a century. It is within the body of the minutes that lurid details about your ancestor’s life may be found as church leaders dealt with discipline cases. Session minutes sometimes contain references to vital events such as baptisms and marriage. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast: www.proni.gov.uk and the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland (PHSI): www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com have large collections of these from all branches of the Presbyterian faith in Ireland. Each has its own online catalog. If not deposited, then session minutes may still be with the local congregation.

One major example of how you need to consider several repositories in the search for records is the case of the Presbyterian congregation of Aghadowey, County Londonderry. It was from the geographic area around this congregation that the first wave of Scots-Irish, as a group, came to Colonial America in 1718: www.1718migration.org.uk They founded Londonderry, New Hampshire. While baptismal registers survive for the Aghadowey Presbyterian Church from 1855 and marriages from 1845, the PHSI has session minutes (1702-1761), which of course pre-dates that first important emigration. Interspersed with these session minutes are notations of early marriages. A study of those colonial Londonderry, New Hampshire families would not be complete without consulting these early session minutes.

A typical session minute book will be in manuscript form and arranged chronological. It will include communion lists, some vital information, disciplinary actions, accounting records, membership records alongside business minutes for the congregation.

Did You Look at the Vestry Minutes?

16 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

One often overlooked source is the vestry minutes produced by the local Church of Ireland. Historically the vestries were committees responsible for the upkeep of churches and welfare of all the people within the parish boundaries irrespective of religion. These can provide much personal detail about who lived where.

As manuscript books, they are usually not indexed, and in theory are arranged chronologically. They are business minutes of the parish, and can include a wide range of data. The parish committees or vestries prior to the disestablishment of the church in 1871, acted as a local council. They levied taxes for general services such as the upkeep of roads, poor relief, and security.

The record keeping process varies from parish to parish. Some are very neatly kept and chronological in order. Others are haphazard in nature as if thrown together, with a poor dating system to mark off new days, months or even years.

At times the minutes have vital information in them. Sometimes they can include rare items such as emigration lists, property owners and ratepayers. There are sometimes parish censuses.

Some vestry minutes were deposited at the Public Record Office prior to 1922 simply because they did contain vital information in them. However, most were not deposited, which may make them the main Anglican collections left for a given parish.

An excellent collection of the vestry minutes can be found at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast: www.proni.gov.uk and the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin: www.ireland.anglican.org Each have their own online catalogs.

Historic Terms Used in the Irish Registry of Deeds (Part 2)

15 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

Continuing from yesterday’s blog, I want to finish my dictionary of terms found in the Irish Registry of Deeds. I have utilized many sources in compiling both lists. This includes genealogical books and books on English land records. The laws governing Irish deeds were based upon those governing English deeds.

Marriage Settlement: Also termed “articles of agreement” it contains mention of the marriage itself and family data binding the two families together through land transactions.

Memorials of Deeds: The common term referencing the deeds. The memorial itself is a copy of the original deed sent to the Registry of Deeds and entered as an official document.

Mortgages: The deeds of mortgages either say they are mortgages or that the property is conveyed with a redemption clause. Mortgage deeds are complex; the purchasing of a mortgage served the same purpose as the modern stock market.

Parcel: A piece of land sometimes in a common field.

Partition: A deed of partition is an agreement to divide an estate.

Pound: An enclosure maintained by an authority for the detention of stray or trespassing cattle as well as for the keeping of distrained cattle or goods until redeemed.

Quality Lot: The part of a holding distinguished by the quality of the soil for valuation purposes.

Recital: The preliminary statement in a deed showing the reason for its existence and explaining the operative part.

Relief of Dower: The assurance by a married woman to the purchaser of land that she relinquished her right to dower in it; generally unnecessary, as the woman joined with her husband in making the conveyance.

Remainder: A future interest in property. An interest in a particular estate that will pass to one at some future time, as on the death of the current possessor.

Severance: The division of an estate into independent parts.

Title: The means by which an owner of land has the right to possess that property.

Trust: The estate of a person who is invested with the legal ownership of land on the condition that it is held for the benefit of another.

Historic Terms Used in the Irish Registry of Deeds (Part 1)

14 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

I am offering a two part dictionary to assist you in understanding what you are seeing. There are certainly terms I have not listed, but I’ve tried to define the major ones.

Abut(ment): Land boundaries where the shorter sides are adjacent plots and the longer sides lie between them, such as in town lots.

Borough: A town granted Corporation status through a royal charter.

Conveyances: The transfer to another of the right, interest or title to a particular piece of property.

Demise: The transfer of an estate by lease or on the death of the owner.

Dower: The life interest of a wife in one-third of the lands which her husband possessed.

Exchange: A deed of exchange is a reciprocal conveyance of property by two parties.

Fee Simple: A freehold or estate of inheritance.

Freehold: A form of tenure in which land is held in fee simple, fee tail or for a term of life.

Grantee: A buyer in a transaction.

Grantor: A seller in a transaction.

Hereditaments: Property that can be inherited.

Indenture: A deed to which there are two or more parties.

Lease: Leases were for fixed period of time or for a period of the lives of persons alive at the time.

Lease and Release: It can refer to deeds of sales, conveyances, rent charges, actual leases, mortgages, and even marriage settlements.

Lives: Leases were often given for the term of three lives, until the last of three people named died.

Tomorrow I will continue this list of legal terms in a Part 2 dictionary.

Historic Terms from Irish Tax Records

11 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

In my continuation of historic terms, I would like to share the ones I find important from the tax lists. This would include the Tithe Applotment (1823-1837) and Griffith’s Primary Valuation (1847-64).

Applotment: The share of the total tax that was imposed upon each individual responsible to pay taxes.

Cottage: A dwelling house of small size, such as is occupied by farm laborers, villagers, miners, etc.

Demesne: Land occupied by a lord for private use.

Free: A squatter who does not recognize a landlord.

Glebe: Land occupied by Church of Ireland ministers.

Grange: Land formerly belonging to a monastery.

House: A building used as a dwelling or a public building such as a house of worship, courthouse, etc.

Immediate Lessor: A landowner who occupies a property or a middleman who leases from the landowner and, in turn, rents all or part of the property to another individual.

In Fee: Owner

Liberty: A civil unit, with authority granted by the crown.

Lot: A section of land with a single physical quality.

Manse: A ministers house.

Occupier: An individual or party who owns/leases/rents a tenement.

Office: A building which is a factory, mill, store, stable, cow shed, pig sty, etc.

Plantation: A section of an estate set aside for planting and cultivation trees and shrubbery for planting on the manse.

Ruin: Abuilding without a roof.

Tenant: An individual who rents/leases property by paying a stated rent to the middleman or owner.

Tenement: Any holding of land as well as a dwelling.

Waste: Ground under houses, yards, streets, small gardens, under barren cliffs, beaches, along the seashore and small bodies of water.

While these may not be the only terms you’ll find in the tax records, they are among the more common ones. They can help you understand what you are looking in the records.

Historic Land Measurements in Ireland

10 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

One research area I always need clarification are land measurements in historic Ireland, prior the early 1830s, when they were replaced by the Ordnance Survey. Below you will find a list of land measurements which I consider important. While you may not come across all of them, you will encounter some along the way.

Balliboe: Used in County Tyrone, similar to a Tat[h]e. Conversion: 1 Balliboe = 80 Irish Acres.

Ballybetagh: A measurement comprising four quarters totaling about 1,000 Irish Acres.

Cartron: Equal to about 30 acres in Connacht and 60 acres in County Longford.

Carucate: The amount of land that an eight oxen team could plough in a year usually between 100 and 120 acres. It is also known as a Ploughland or Villate.

Carvagh: A measurement for acres in County Cavan.

Cunningham Acre: An Ulster measurement. It was also known as a Scottish Acre. Conversion: 1 Cunningham Acre = 1.3 English Acres.

English Acre: The standard unit for measuring land in Ireland from the 1830s.

Great Acre: A measure equal to about 20 English Acres.

Irish Acre: Common system of measuring property in Ireland from the 17^th century, called a Plantation Acre. Conversion: 1 Irish Acre = 1.62 English Acre.

Poll: A measure of land equal to about 50 or 60 acres.

Sum: A division of land in Ulster known as a collop in other parts of Ireland, considered capable of supporting a family in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The measurement was based on the land necessary for a mature animal to graze.

Tat[h]e: A measurement for acres in County Fermanagh and Monaghan. Conversion: 1 Tate = 60 Irish Acres.

Towne: A local land measurement in County Antrim (also in Carlow and Offaly), equaling about 20 Great Acres.

Just be aware these other measuring systems existed alongside the English Acres through at least the early 1830s. I do see these, in records such as the Registry of Deeds, landlord estate papers and the Tithe Applotment.

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