‘The significance of the Irish townland as an analytical tool for the genealogist and local historian with an introduction and overview of CavanTownlands.com.’
The format of the talk falls into 3 parts. Part 1 poses the question ‘What is a townland?’ and provides a summarised history of the Irish Townland from earliest records to the present day. Part 2 introduces the website in a series of short video clips which describe how to go about using the website to best advantage in terms of searching for that townland of interest and a brief overview of content on the site. Part 3 delves further into the unique sources of data available on the site and gives some words of caution when using the National Archives website for genealogical research. The talk lasts 45 minutes.
We would like to thank Paula Jones, Shane Wilson, John Goggins and all at The Genealogical Society of Ireland for providing the opportunity to make this presentation. You can visit the GSI website here GSI
This short video provides a brief overview of content on the site and will guide you on how best to use the search facility to track down your townland of interest
This video will give you an overview of the content in the Library section
This video provides a quick introduction to the Map collection
This is the earliest census of Cavan to be completed and c.80,000 individual records listing entire families are available to search. Cavan researchers are fortunate that a significant proportion of the 1821 census has survived. The records cover 17 of the 36 civil parishes of county Cavan and provide a complete listing of all individuals residing in those parishes. The returns include name, age, sex, occupation and home townland. The NAI has made available these records on their website but many of the indexation and transcription issues previously encountered with the Tithe Applotment Book records (1832) also apply here. Even more unusual is the fact that a search on the NAI site will produce duplicate records for each original entry. We have established that two sets of photographs were taken of each original enumerator return page. The duplicate photographs were transcribed in full and the results, which do not always match, were combined and uploaded as a single record. Of the 160,000 records presented we had to use our best judgement to decide what we felt were the most accurate transcriptions and whittle the 160,000 names down to the correct figure of c.80,000 individuals. This work also involved the re-indexation of the townland names to their correct Logainm classification and the compiling of this new dataset into a usable document. Note we have not attempted to update the surname transcriptions which, unfortunately, are not very reliable in many instances. We recommend that any records encountered be verified by cross checking with the original photographed records which can be viewed on the NAI site. You can now search the census records by filtering parish, townland, surname, first name, occupation etc. The search engine supports predictive text which makes searching easier too.
Use the filter at the top of each column to reduce the data. The Parish filter presents the list of 17 parishes, selectable by dropdown. You can filter on the Townland, Surname, Forename, Occupation and Relation to Head by entering any sequence of characters within the text. Bear in mind that names which have been transcribed are often misspelt. Results are filtered as you type.
Townlands preceded with a * are transcriptions that could not be matched to a current townland.Please bear with us as page loading may be a bit slow due to the number of records. This data is best viewed on a desktop with a big screen.
For those of you wishing to use this site to trace your family roots, here are a few tips on how to search by name. There are currently five sets ... Read More
Here we visualise some of the data from the 1841 census of Killashandra. Hover over a townland to display its name. Click on a townland to get more details on its status in 1841.
Note that we have not included the urban populations of Killashandra Town and Arvagh Town in these chloropleths. Populations for surrounding townlands may be thin as the data are recorded with respect to the town and not to the townland.
Population Density
For each townland, we show the the total population who were present divided by the area of the townland in hectares.
Life Expectancy
Households were asked to name all the occupants who had died since the last census, including their year of death and age at which they died. The chloropleth shows the average age of death for the deceased population in each townland.
Literacy Levels
The chloropleth shows a literacy score for the present population, aged 12 years and over, in each townland. Households were asked to enter for each occupant “Read”, “Read and Write” or “Cannot Read”. The actual responses were much more numerous than these three possibilities, but we derived one of the three possible values from the given response. (A small proportion – 1% – of values could not be ascertained and were designated “Unknown” and omitted from the analysis). We assigned a score of 1 to “Read”, 2 to “Read and Write” and 0 to “Cannot Read” and calculated the average score for the designated population.
School Attendance
The chloropleth shows the percentage of children who were attending school from the population who were present and aged between 4 and 12. Households were asked to enter the occupation of each occupant, or in the case of children, to say whether they attended school.
Guide to the location and navigation of the digitised images on the FamilySearch (LDS) website.
The lists of tenant names which we provide on this website have been scraped from the National Archives website. Unfortunately the indexation and classification of the records for this particular dataset on the NAI site are notoriously misleading and incorrect on a number of levels. Prior to the mapping of the country by the Ordnance Survey (Cavan was first mapped over the years 1835-1836) there was no standardised and approved list of townland names. Even a slight variation in spelling will turn up a negative result and a significant number of townland names were either transcribed incorrectly or the names do not match the approved accepted version. We suspect about 75% of the records are concealed due to these errors. What we present in our tables is a listing of tenant names which we have re-indexed by parish and townland. We believe this is correct to about 95% accuracy for townlands which were surveyed. Note the parish of Drung has not been transcribed and is missing from this dataset. We have not checked each individual surname entry and the only way to ensure accuracy is to view the original photographed TAB pages which can be viewed on the FamilySearch website. Access here requires signing up for an account but this is free. These images also provide details on the tenants landholdings and the taxation valuations which were applied to each plot.
It should also be pointed out that, although it only applies to a few parishes, some of the records are duplicated or triplicated as the survey was updated every few years. These books, which were typically an exact copy of the previous year, ended up being transcribed and added to the collection. Thus in the parish of Annagelliff you will find entries for four years, although this is an exception. In some instances the same individual has been given an alternate spelling of surname so checking the original photographs is crucial in avoiding errors. In rare instances we have found changes in leaseholder due to death or other cause and this can be a very interesting find for the genealogical fraternity.
The table below provides an index to the images of the original TAB which can be viewed on the LDS FamilySearch website. Searching directly by Cavan on this website results in the same flawed outcome achieved using the NAI site but the list below which we have prepared will guide the uninitiated to the core images which represent the true archive which is available, albeit well concealed. You will find some entries indexed under counties Meath, Down, Cork, Fermanagh, Leitrim and Mayo so the limitations are obvious. Also, a number of parishes have been grouped into one record and these are listed below. The FamilySearch website is the best place to view the images as the search facility by image on the NAI site is very cumbersome and limited to pdf files only. The FamilySearch website provides thumbnail images of the original pages as photographed and these are relatively easy to navigate with the index provided in the table which we have summarised below:
For those of you wishing to use this site to trace your family roots, here are a few tips on how to search by name.
There are currently five sets of data containing names of individuals, each of which is separately (but easily) searchable. The records are presented in a grid and each column of the grid can be filtered instantaneously. For example, if you are researching the 1841 Census data for the name “Reilly”, you can start typing some characters in the Surname column heading and the records are filtered as you type. There are several variations of “Reilly” in the data – “O’Reilly”, “Reilly”, “Riley”, “Reilley” – to name a few. By entering any sequence of characters in the name, the list will be filtered accordingly. You can quickly experiment with different sequences – “rei”, “ril”, “ley”, etc. to see the matches. The image below shows some of the results for a filter on Townland=”arvagh” and Surname=”eil”. As you can see, the results include several variations. This capability provides an advantage over the National Archives search function which is much slower and requires the use of wild cards to get the same result.
1841 Census of Killashandra
You can search each of the four datasets by clicking on the buttons below, or from the Main Menu > Civil Records > dropdown menu.
Commonwealth Survey of 1652 – 2,201 records
This dataset includes the names of the landowners only. There are a few exceptions where tenants’ names are included. These appear in the barony of Tullyhaw and include the parishes of Drumreilly, Killinagh, Kinawley, Templeport and Tomregan.
This is a rich source of data with records for all individuals living in Killashandra in 1841, those deceased in the previous ten years and in many cases, data for those who had emigrated.
Cavantownlands would like to thank Billy for contributing this comprehensive and highly detailed history of the townland of Corr which is located close to Cornafean in the parish of Killashandra. Billy has written many articles about this region of Cavan and this, his latest work, is the culmination of many years of research combined with a unique knowledge of local history in this area. This piece will be of great interest not only to those living in Corr and nearby townlands, but also to the wider Cavan diaspora as much of the history recounted here can be applied to the other townlands of Killashandra and indeed to the entire of the County.
1836 Name Book records for the townlands of 9 parishes first published in The Heart of Breifne.
The preparation of the six inch to one mile scale maps of the entire island of Ireland, which was conducted by The Ordnance Survey of Ireland between 1824 and 1846, required the naming of townlands, geographical features, prominent buildings and landmarks. The renowned Irish scholar, John O’Donovan, was given the task of ascertaining accurately the old Irish names of the townlands, their translation and making recommendations for the final English version to be used in the printed maps. This he did with great skill and attention to detail. He visited Cavan in 1836 and his travels are recorded in his Ordnance Survey Letters which were reports and requests written to the OS headquarters in the Phoenix Park. The orthography section of the Name Books include the received name, the final agreed name and translations as well as other versions which were encountered. The final section of the field name books under the headings ‘Situation’ and ‘Descriptive Remarks’ typically provide details on the exact location and description of boundaries along with notes on soils, farming practices, leases and rents, prominent buildings, employment and landlord names. Here we reproduce, courtesy of Anna Sexton editor of The Heart of Breifne, the summarised Descriptive Remarks which were transcribed by Liam O’Ceallaigh and published over the years 1979-1987. The nine parishes covered are: Bailieborough, Castlerahan, Crosserlough, Denn, Killinkere, Knockbride, Lavey, Munterconnaught and Shercock.
Thesis on the 1821 Census for the parish of Drumlumman (Drumlomman).
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