When I first began researching my Irish ancestors, I was primarily working with records in the United States. Once I was able to make the leap to Irish records it was slightly bewildering. Civil Parishes, Catholic Parishes, Registrations Districts, Poor Law Unions-- there was so much to remember. And they sometimes changed.
After stopping what I was doing to look up the Civil Parish of Ballyraggan for the third time, (it's Graney), I hit on the idea of creating a word document listing all the relevant townlands and all the land divisions pertaining to each. When I find a new place of interest, I add it to my list. This document resides in the upper right corner of my computer desktop, in easy reach when I'm looking at records. I use my list constantly as I'm prone to jumping from one family line to another, it's one of the best research tools I've created yet. .
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