Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Tithes Update

     OK, it's wonderful the tithes are online, but it appears they are riddled with errors.  Not the images themselves,  which are the actual images from the books.  The problem is how the various areas were cataloged. 
   
      Yesterday I wrote that I could not find Ballyraggan Townland, in the Civil Parish of Graney, County Kildare.  Today I did a search for just Ballyraggan and got no hits.  Then I tried misspelling it with an "on" at the end and up came "Ballyraggon"!  Only it was in Granard Parish, County Longford.   I've since heard from other researchers they are having similar problems in other counties.
   
      I'm sure it's the right townland, for there is my Great Great grandfather Daniel McGarr with the common spelling, (in Ireland anyway) of "Danl McGaa".  And the neighbors have names I recognize also. Coleman and Kinsella among others.
  
   It's more than a little annoying that the National Archives did such a poor job with the locations of townlands and parishes in their own country.  Still, it's free, and it seems the images are there though you may have to hunt for them a little.

     One other thing to keep in mind, the Tithe Applotments were, for the most part, done in Irish acres which equal 1.6 English Acres, the measurement we are familiar with, so your ancestor may have a bit more land that it appears at first glance.  For instance, my Daniel leased 5 acres, which if multiplied by 1.6 = 8 acres.  Not bad for that time and place.


No comments:

Post a Comment