Hi I'm coming over in April and would love it if I could pin point the area where my great granddad's farm was but the census says
" house 1 Cloonfert "
. I've looked on Griffiths valuation map but it's very tricky to read. It says 2K. I can find a couple of areas marked 2 but not a K. Would anyone know where the census taker would have started? Or is anyone really good at reading the Griffiths map? My grandad was Anthony O'Donnell.
The individual properties on plot 2 have not been given numbers on the Griffiths map. But there appears to have been a line of houses to the east side of the road in Cloonfert all within plot 2 (so likely to be 2a to 2k). Looking at the location today on a satellite image, they nearly all appear to have been demolished or collapsed.
If it helps, the 1901 census return gives you some information about the farm then. (Use the house & buildings return and the out offices return). The property had walls made of brick or stone, the roof was thatch, wood or a similar perishable material; there were 2 windows at the front of the house and it had 2 rooms. There was 1 cow house.
By 1911 the home had acquired a 3rd room and there was also a piggery as well as the cow house.
The numbering system for the census was the enumerator’s own private system and did not necessarily follow any specified designated order. Just how that person chose to visit the properties was up to them to decide. And the enumerators were usually different people every 10 years so did not necessarily follow the same route. However in this case I notice the O’Donnell home was plot 1 in both censuses, so I’d guess it was at one end of that row of buildings along the Cloonfort road. And that fits with 2k in Griffiths as being the last property in plot 2.
Note that the 1926 census will be released on 18th April. If your family was still there then, you should get a bit more information about them.