A Landed Estate Court sale document for 1850 for land at Rathcarron, Co Meath

Ross Weldon advises

 

Searching for Irish roots can be as rewarding as it is difficult. Our neighbours in the UK and in mainland Europe have census records dating as far back as 1863but unfortunately our oldest census only dates to 1901.Regrettably Ireland has a bad history of holding onto its most valuable records. 

The first Irish census was taken in 1821 and thereafter roughly every ten years. In 1917 in the midst of World War I, the British Government ordered that the Irish censuses for the years 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 should be pulped to assist with a paper shortage at the time.

During the 1922 civil war the Public Records Office of Ireland was housed in the Four Courts, which was taken over by the Republican anti-Treaty side. The strong-room of the PRO, which held a vast amount of public records dating from the 14^th century as well as all censuses not previously pulped bar the 1901 and 1911 censuses, was used by the anti-Treaty side to store weapons and ammunitions. After heavy shelling from the pro-Treaty side the strong-room was hit, the munitions exploded and all of the records were destroyed.Only those few records in the PRO Reading Room at the start of the conflict survived. The most significant losses were: the surviving census returns, two-thirds of pre-1870 Church of Ireland parish registers and all of the surviving wills probated in Ireland

While it’s undeniable that we have suffered some terrible losses of our national records it has also served to encourage Irish genealogists and family historians to seek out other records in an effort to help those with Irish roots to piece together their family trees.

Findmypast Ireland launched in May of this year. Although it may appear to be the new kid on the block, findmypast Ireland benefit from the knowledge of over forty years’ experience in family history as a result of the expertise of their founding partners. Findmypast.ie is a partnership between Eneclann, an award-winning research and publishing house with extensive experience in family history in Ireland and findmypast, one of the world’s leading family history sites. Eneclann have spent over a decade researching, digitising and publishing family history records in Ireland. Their deep expertise in the records and archives available issecond to none, as is their extensive proficiency in giving hard-to find records a second lease of life through their digitisation.

Findmypast was the first website in the world to put the UK’s birth, marriage and death records online in 2003, and has since made hundreds of millions of family history records available online to customers around the world. They have years of experience in managing hundreds of millions of online records and operating family history websites which aim to make your research as hassle free as possible.

The result of this partnership is what promises to be the world’s most comprehensive Irish family history site with over 40 million more records to be released over the coming months. One of the benefits of Ireland’s lack of census records is that most information has to be taken from sources which provide a bit more information, helping to build a fuller picture of your ancestors. This ties in to findmypast’s aim of trying to help you to get to know your ancestors by finding out more than just what their name was. You can find out where they lived, with whom, what rent they paid and what their occupation was. You can even see scans and plans of the villages and towns in which they lived. One of the most interesting of these records, the Landed Estate Court Records,is discussed below.

One of the most significant set of records available on findmypast.ie is the Landed Estate Court Rentals records. The Landed Estate Court Rentals represent one of the most valuable and under used sources for anyone engaged in Irish research. Up until now, the biggest problem with the Landed Estate Court rentals has been access, which meant they stayed off the radar to a certain extent for most family historians. Although used by professional Irish genealogists the microfilm records stored at the National Archive of Ireland are indexed by estate owner of which there are only 8,000 listed. This made it difficult to find the 600,000 tenants also listed in the records, unless of course you know the name of the landowner that they rented from.

With the kind permission of the National Archives and an agreement to allow free access to the digitised images in five years’ time, the 100,000 microfilm images were taken, digitised and indexed and are now available for the first time online at findmypast.ie. 

The Rentals are effectively printed sale catalogues, which were circulated to prospective purchasers in advance of the sale. They were compiled with the intention of attracting purchasers and of providing information on the estate in a clear and uniform manner. The Land Courts sold estates in every county in Ireland, and the rentals as a whole cover large parts of the country. The estates sold included urban as well as rural property and many of the Rentals relate to houses and other buildings in villages, towns and cities.

The title page in a Rental identifies the estate and gives the date and place of sale. This is usually followed by brief descriptive particulars of the estate and its situation, intended to attract prospective buyers. Anyone who has read the property section of a newspaper will know what to expect in this section.

To the family historian, the critical information contained in these catalogues are the rentals, especially the Lot descriptions. The details often include:

The information contained in this online edition of the Landed Estate Court rentals is a testament to the progress of Irish family history research over the last decade. Previously, the amateur family historian would have been content to find out merely names and dates associated with their ancestors, but the difficulties with even that in Ireland have led genealogists to think outside the box and look for more interesting windows into our past. The Landed Estate Court records are a perfect example of this as they provide not only names and dates but key facts about our ancestors’ lives, such as where exactly they lived, who they lived with, what their lodgings were like and what the area in which they lived was like.

Since its launch the team at findmypast have been working constantly to source, digitise and publish hitherto forgotten about records. October will see the launch of one of the most significant sets of Irish records ever published online, the Irish Prison Registers (1790-1924). The significance of these lies in the fact that for most of the 18^th and 19^th century Ireland was the most incarcerated nation in the whole of Europe resulting in over 4 million names appearing in these records. Each entry provides a full physical description of the prisoner, their next of kin and also the name of their victim.

Findmypast.ie has two affordable subscription options; 6 months for €37.95 or 12 months for €59.95 which provide access to the complete Ireland collection. They also offer two pay-per-view options for those who have identified the specific records needed to complete their family tree.

 

 

 

 

                               

 

 

 

• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Advertiser Info