Irish Family History

Every so often genealogy bloggers are invited to join in the Carnival of Genealogy and submit a post around a certain theme. Today I thought I’d give it a go and respond to Thomas McEntree’s invitation to join the Happy Dance carnival hosted by Becky at kinexxions.

The question posed was ‘What event, what document, what special find has caused you to stand up and cheer, to go crazy with joy?’

For me, it was the discovery of the identity of my great-great-great grandfather. I had found members of my family living in Carlow during the 1850s by searching Griffith’s Valuation on Irish Origins and knew that my great-great grandfather’s name was James and great-great-great grandmother’s name was Mary, but I had no clue who Mary’s husband was.

Prior to the publication of Griffith’s Valuation*  information was recorded by valuers in notebooks known as house books and field books (there were other forms of notebook too but these occur most frequently). The house books describe the properties and occupiers, while the field books provide information relating to owner of land and quality of land. These can be viewed on microfilm at the National Archives in Dublin, or can be obtained via your local LDS centre.

What is fantastic about these notebooks is that if a relative died sometime between the information being recorded in a house book or field book and Griffith’s Valuation, then their name will be replaced with that of their successor, who is very often a family member. My great-great grandfather James was mentioned in Griffith’s Valuation, and I also found him mentioned in the house and field book. However, his name had been added above another name which had been crossed out – and that name was Henry. I was delighted to find this – perhaps it was James’ father and the breakthrough to the next generation that I had been looking for.

Of course, I could not confirm that Henry was my great-great-great grandfather until I had found further sources to corroborate this but this little nugget of information was a great joy to discover!

And the great news is that I was subsequently able to identify Henry in the tithe applotment books, a will fragment and a gravestone in a neighbouring parish, allowing me to confirm that this was indeed my ancestor.

* Incidentally, Griffith’s Valuation was not just published once – there are a number of versions for certain areas which may include slightly different information.  The pamphlets are held across several different repositories, and the most comprehensive online collation of the various pamphlets is hosted at www.irishorigins.com)