Viewing A FHL film Not Online via Zoom/ Online Consultations/My Irish research

Viewing a film with restrictions from California

A few years ago an Irish Valuation office revision book became available online via the Family History Library digitized films posted at their site. I assumed the rest of these films held by the Valuation office in Ireland would eventually be available also.  The film for my Huane family  land  has never been posted online. Apparently there is some sort of restriction on that film? Not sure why because it's held by the same office as the other films which are online. A Valuation office staff member emailed me and told me that they would be putting these online at some point. 

Above you can see some with a camera (are online) and some just a film icon (not online)

Recently I found out there were online consultations with research specialists who work at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. You can consult them if you are new to genealogy research or you have a brick wall you'd like them to take a look at and get some suggestions on research you may not have considered. 

Another service they can provide, during a consultation, is allowing you to view a film you can't view because of restrictions or you don't live near a Family History Center and your film isn't viewable from home. The time allotted for a consultation is 20 minutes, but if they aren't busy they can spend more time with you. One research specialist spent an hour with me.  

My primary reason for the Irish consultation I signed up for was to view the revision book film covering the townland of Fallakeeran, Co. Mayo. The Irish research specialist I talked to, Dan Poffenberger, had some wonderful suggestions for further research aside from just viewing the film. I had assumed David Rutledge was the owner of the land (as recorded on Griffith's Valuation). The research specialist pointed out that David Rutledge was likely leasing land from a large landowner. Knowing the name of the landowner can sometimes lead to the names of tenants, if the landholders records survived. My family was Irish Catholic and couldn't own land until land reforms were instituted. They rented land from David Rutledge. 

Irish deed books and indexes are online at FamilySearch. I checked to see if I could figure out who the owner of the Fallakeeran, Co. Mayo townland land was? I noticed that after land reforms allowed lessors to buy their land, with low interest government loans, the Rutledge family bought land the Fallakeeran land from a large landowner named Lady Eva Fitzgerald. If the Fitzgerald family papers still survive there could be more information about Fallakeeran and its inhabitants. 

I suggest being ready to take notes if you do one of the consultations. The first consultation I did I wasn't prepared and regretted it.  

I decided to order copies of these pages from the Valuation Office in Ireland. It cost 30 euros for the copies. The films the FHL has aren't in color. Changes to land ownership were recorded using colored ink. Different colors were used every year. In the far left had column (2nd image below) you can see the years changes were recorded. Apparently 1912 changes were recorded in light blue and 1916 changes in red. 

The cross out in 1912 of Thomas Huane's name shows a change of ownership. Thomas Huane's son Austin, who was the eldest son, now owns his father's interest in the Fallakeeran property. What his interest was isn't completely clear. I have not been able to find a deed transferring the 187 acres these families owned in common as recorded in Griffith's Valuation in 1855. Maybe the deeds transferring the land were never recorded? Recording deeds wasn't required. I was hoping the land would have been divided at some point but they continued to own the land in common. Holding land in common land was customary in this part of Ireland. 

The lowercase letter by the names of these land holders and tenants represents the house these families lived in. They each had their own house but held the land in common. The lower case e represents my Huane ancestors house. 

It appears the Ruttledge family purchased the 187 acres of land in Fallakeeran, after land reform, from the Fitzgerald family. In the case of my Mullen family they were able to purchase their land in 1909 when they received the certificate to the land. Most tenants owned the land by the1920s, the Huanes were the exception. 

In 1925 this 187 acres was transferred from the Ruttledge family to the Irish Land Commission. I need to do more research on this transfer. I believe at some point the Huane family did own some of this land, but I can't verify that. The land records online at FamilySearch only go up to 1929. Since I haven't found the Huanes in the deeds index, if they bought the land, they likely purchased it after 1929. The Irish Land Commission Records may be key to finding out what happened to this land. 

In 1926 Austin Huane's land was transferred to his son Thomas in a different color representing 1925 the common land was transferred from the lessor to the Land Commission

I would like to know the exact location of the land in hopes of visiting there in the future. I will likely order a copy of the map that corresponds with the revision books.