I didn't know that Irish Deed books were online until I watched "A Strategic Approach to Irish Genealogy", which is a free video from RootsTech 2019 London. Maurice Gleason was the presenter at this excellent session.
These digitized microfilms are free to use at FamilySearch. The title of this series of films is "Transcripts of memorials of deeds, conveyances and wills, 1708-1929." Unlike in the United States land records were recorded by the national government in Dublin, instead of by county or town.
A little history of landownership is necessary when it comes to researching land records in Ireland. According to the encyclopedia Britannica in 1641 Irish Catholics owned 59% of the land (although Protestants already owned much of the land in Ulster). With the ascendance of Protestants to the British throne after the Glorious Revolution restrictions on landownership by Catholics resulted in a decrease in ownership with Catholics owning only 22% of the land. By 1703 they owned only 14% of the land in the country. Protestant's made up 10% of the population, but owned most of the land in Ireland.
Landownership by Catholics didn't increase significantly until the Irish National Land League was formed in Co. Mayo, where some of my own ancestors lived. A motto was "The Land of Ireland for the people of Ireland." Most of the Irish were tenant farmers who paid rent to English and Scottish landowners. The league used various means to achieve the reforms they wanted including rent strikes. My own ancestor Patrick Mullen was granted ownership of his land due to an 1891 land reform.
I've found many land entries for landowners who lived in Dublin or London. Landlords were generally absentee. One document listed individuals with an interest in land in Ireland living in Auckland, New Zealand, France, and London.
The deeds books have two sets of indexes one set up by the name of the grantor. The grantor indexes are often arranged by decade. Sometimes there are several individual books covering a decade.
My favorite index is by townland. These books are called land index books. The townland being the smallest jurisdiction this is the easiest way to find land records for ancestors with common surnames, like my Mullen family. For some not living in Ireland finding ancestors townland names can be a challenge. Sometimes ancestors didn't give the townland as their place of residence, but instead named the nearest town. I was able to find my ancestors' townlands through marriage records in Ireland. If you can find your ancestors on Griffith's Valuation and the 1901 and 1911 Censuses you will also find their townlands listed there.
The first step in the process of researching the indexes is to decide which years you are interested in looking at because they are first organized by years. Each county/townland book generally represents around half a decade. As I said before each grantors index represents generally a full decade.
The index gives the year, book number, and page number for the deed that was copied into the ledger book (early books also give a deed number). There are also page numbers for entries in Day Books, which are not online
How to search the books
Let's use Thomas Kirrane as an example. Say we knew he lived in the townland of Pollaturick in Co. Galway, and we are interested in the time period between 1900 and 1904. The first check would be for the index book covering the County of Galway for that period. Since we know the county and townland he lived in it's faster to use land indexes. And using the townland index will allow you to see all deeds filed for that place at around the same time.
Now that we are in the right place in the index we will now look for the townland. To find the townland quickly we need to know which barony our townland was located in. By Googling the townland we can generally find the barony. There is often a barony index in these index books which makes the quick location of the townlands easy.
Pollaturick in in the barony of Dunmore. This barony begins on page 257. We then go to the page with the P at the top for Pollaturick since the townlands are in alphabetical order.
Thomas Kirrane is at the top of the page. Next we need to go to the actual deed books. The books are first arranged by year, then by volume. We need the year 1900 volume 45. As we see below volume 45 is the second volume in the digitized microfilm.
We scroll down to the second book which is book number 45.
In the earliest books the page numbers will match the numbered pages in the book. This format changed in later books when the page number actually is more of a document number. The early books also contain a deed number you can use to verify you have the correct entry.
In 1900 the page number refers to a specific document because the pages are not numbered.
When I locate the correct year and document for Thomas Kirrane, document 264 I run into a problem this deed is for someone else? A Michael Nally of Killerneen.
When we turn the page we find Thomas Kirrane listed under No. 267. So if you can't find someone keep paging through. Looking back at the index the clerk who recorded the deed formed his 7's in such a way it looked like a 4 to me.
This deed gives very exact information on when this did was registered. It was registered 9 July 1900 at 37 minutes after 10.
My ancestor Patrick Mullen's entry directed to the correct deed which was filed in 1901. His page is number 9 on the index which matches the document number on the page. In 1901 the clerk probably was a different person than in 1900. I can clearly make out his 7's.
Patrick also received his land as a result of the 1891 Registration of title act. Both Thomas Kirrane and Patrick Mullen were both tenant farmers before they received title to their lands.
I knew Patrick Mullen's landlord was Courtney Clarke, from Griffith's Valuation, so I searched the deeds for him in hopes of finding some information on his tenants. Unfortunately my Patrick Mullen was never mentioned.
I did find a marriage related document which gave more information on Clarke himself. According to the document he was a Lieutenant in her Majesty's Regiment of Fusiliers. Also according to the document he married Arbella Charles Walsh in 1878.
I've run across many documents relating to marriages of large scale landowners who were also landlords.
The document below gives some information on a Peter Daly who had some interest in land in Pollaturick townland Galway. The Daly family is related to my Mullen family so I decided to take a look at this document. The land index is helpful because it shows all land transactions for a townland and you can find family deeds clustered together. Some interesting information provided here is that a Peter Daly was a Catholic Priest who lived in the city of Galway. You never know what sort of information might be recorded. Often occupations are recorded.
Other documents I've seen are powers of attorney, and wills. Wills were also sometimes recorded in the deed books. Before the land reforms in the late 19th Century you'll generally find mostly middle class and aristocratic families listed in the deed books. Beginning around 1880 you will see ownership beginning to change as tenants receive title to their land.
You will also sometimes find interesting markings in these books directing you to the next page or directing you to look up.
Here is an example of an early index to the deed books. We see Liber, or book number, page number, and a document number. Sometimes many books are listed together in a single paragraph like below. You just have to keep looking for libers to find all individual the books.
I'm very happy to have collect a few family deeds. I'm a little disappointed that my Huane/Huvane family did not file any deeds before 1930. Filing a deed with the registry office in Dublin wasn't mandatory.
The Registry Office in Henrietta Street in Dublin also keeps original copies of deeds. I'm thinking of trying to get original copies because they may potentially provide additional information.
I generally find more information about my family around St.Patrick's Day and this year is no exception. I guess it must have something to do with the luck of the Irish?
Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!
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