The value of the Valuations Office

This November I’m talking about the Valuations Office, which is a working arm of Taillte Eireann, which is the national property authority. But first, I want to mention two offers.

The Irish News Archive is Irish-owned and has a large collection of newspapers. Over the last decade, there has been a huge growth in the numbers of national and regional Irish newspapers which can be searched online. They have a 25% discount running on their silver subscription and 30% off their Gold for Halloween, which is why you’re getting this newsletter on the last day of October.

Secondly, AncestryDNA in Ireland and the UK is having a flash sale at £39.99 plus shipping. I’ve never seen it this cheap before. This offer ends on 3rd November. Don’t waste time on the other test which offers traits as well. Just read your horoscope for free: it’ll be as accurate!

What is the Valuations Office?

On to the Valuations Office then. Taillte Éireann is the umbrella organisation which manages property in Ireland. It also has responsibility for the Registry of Deeds.

The Valuations Office is where you go to trace who owned a plot of land over time. Following on from the Primary Valuation of Ireland (colloquially known as Griffith’s Valuation), land was periodically resurveyed and valued, approximately every 5 years. This included updates to the occupier (tenant) and immediate lessor (who they were renting from) as well as the size and type of holding (in acres, roods and perches) and the value of it (plus any buildings on it) in pre-decimal pounds. Different coloured ink was used as a shorthand for particular years in a given decade (see example below).

Therefore, it can be very useful for tracking land ownership over a long period of time. In many counties, these records run right up to 1977. It’s a repository that I make frequent use of. The genealogical uses are myriad but here’s just a couple of examples.

Susan has identified her family in the 1911 census but the description just gives a house number in a townland. She would like to be able to plot this on a map and see what is there today. The Valuation Office records can be consulted to find the correct name in that townland - being careful to confirm that there isn’t another person of the same name to get mixed up. This can then be plotted on to a map with longitude & latitude.

Roger knows that his family ran a farm near Tullamore in the late 19th century, but cannot find them on Griffith’s Valuation, which means they must have taken possession after it was surveyed in 1854. Using the Valuations Office, he can work backwards from when his family were there and see when the names changed. This might lead to the identification of a lease.

Where are these records?

If your ancestors were in modern-day Northern Ireland, then head straight to PRONI to view the revision books for those 6 counties online from 1864-1933. These records are not transcribed but you can search by placename and then flip through the pages digitally. Thanks to Allie for reminding me that there is a not great transcribed version of this on Ancestry too.

If your ancestors were in the modern-day Republic of Ireland, then the records are not online. Most counties have been scanned but you need to go into the Valuations Office to view them on a computer. There are no current plans to make these images available online. Staff are helpful, but you do need to make an appointment, and visitors should note there is no public toilet (which I think is totally unacceptable). You can photograph the images from the screen or pay small fees to print out pages.

Let’s take a look at some images - all my own photos. This first example is from the townland of Clonad in Philipstown, Co. Offaly. You can see here that plot 1 has changed from Patrick Keating to Mary Keating and over in the observations column, the matching purple ink shows this revision happened in 1908. We might find here taht Patrick died since the previous valuation and Mary, his wife, took over. Of course, this can be verified by looking at the death records on Irishgenealogy.ie. There are also changes to several other plots on this page.

This next example is from Portnard, near Doon in Limerick. The purple stamp marked LAP indicates a plot has been purchased by the occupier through the Land Acts. In future, this may mean we can consult the archives of the Land Commission to see the documentation on this purchase but for now, they remain closed to the public. The words “in fee” mean owned.

As with Griffith’s Valuation, if there’s no differentiation, then the same name appearing at more than one plot in the same townland can be taken as the same person. I have sometimes seen these plots linked in the notes, as shown in this example from Rush, Co. Dublin.

I hope you’ve found this newsletter useful. If you’re not in a position to visit the Valuations Office yourself, please contact me for a quote to get photos of a townland or property.