Footsteps Of My Ancestors II

Diane,

I think you may have the people, townlands and parishes a bit mixed up here.  Magherabrach – 358 acres- (more commonly Magherabrack) is in Kilglass parish and Browbane (probably now Bookaun Browne – 84 acres, or Bookaun Tottenhan – 79 acres) is in Easky.

You can find townlands on a variety of maps. You are evidently familiar with the Griffiths records. Their maps (which are on the Griffiths website) show where the plot numbers were around the 1850s.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

You can also used the Irish placenames site: http://www.logainm.ie

You ask about earlier maps. There may not be any. Ireland wasn’t mapped comprehensively in detail until the 1830s.

You mention Phelim Carolan in Magherabrach and Patrick Rogan in Browbane. Should they not be the other way round?

The tithe applotment records for Bowkane (Bookaun) in 1833 list Phelim Carolan with 2.5 acres. He farmed there in conjunction with 3 others and they each had some acres of land. Unfortunately the tithes do not have any accompanying maps.

By the time of Griffiths in 1857 there were no Carolans in Bookaun so their property isn’t listed. The Rafter & Connolly families were still there (plots 1 & 2 in Griffiths) so you can presumably assume it wasn’t that land. That leaves plots 3, 4 or 5 as being the likely general area for the Carolan property. Looking on Google Earth, only plot 3 has a house on it today. The rest is just agricultural land. Plot 3 is down a minor road just outside Easky village.

Pat Rogan is listed in Magherabrack in the tithes as having 12 acres. There’s no Rogan household there in 1857. The Rouse family are still there (plot 3) and so can presumably be eliminated. The Rogans must have been on one of the other 5 plots. Looking at the land today it’s all still farmland.

Diane,

There are plot numbers in the tithes and plot numbers in Griffiths but I doubt they are often the same. The tithes were compiled by church authorities c 1820 – 1835 whereas Griffiths was compiled by his civilian clerks 1848 - 1864. They both presumably started numbering from 1 but not necessarily from the same starting place and neither shared records so far as I am aware. So plot 3 in the tithes is not necessarily the same as plot 3 in Griffiths.  To access the Griffiths maps, go to the website:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

Click on “Griffiths places”, enter, for example, Bookaun & Sligo. If you click on “Occupants” you will then see a list of who was occupying the land there in 1857. “Map views” will take you to a map of the area.  You will need to narrow your search a bit by using the website tools. Bookaun (Browne) is not hard to find. It’s in the middle of the circle. The initial view will show you a map compiled around the 1860s which shows the various plot numbers. There’s a slider bar in the top RH corner which allows you to switch to a modern map. Or you can click on a box in the LH corner marked “satellite” for a google earth view. If you use the slider bar on the RH side you can then switch between the 1860s map and the modern satellite view.

The tithes were measured in Irish acres whereas Griffiths was measured in statute acres. So the sizes in the 2 sets of records don’t neatly match up. (I can explain how to convert from one set to the other but you probably don't need that).

IRO has volunteers in various parts of the country. I don’t know if we have anyone near Easky but once you have likely dates for your trip let us know, and our Volunteer Co-Ordinator will do her best to find a local volunteer to meet you. As far as visiting property here is concerned, most landowners will readily give you permission to go on their land (unless of course a field is full of pregnant sheep or a valuable crop). But normally, just knock and ask. The land that your ancestors appear to have farmed is working farmland, so it will depend on what the owner is growing or has in the fields. Ireland can be wet. (That’s why it’s so green). So if you fancy walking over some fields, bring sensible footwear. 

If trying to find these townlands yourself, by car, you may need conventional old fashioned map reading skills, or a guide. Satellite nav devices don’t always work very well in rural Ireland. Entering a townland rarely has the accuracy you need.  Sometimes they simply fail to recognise it plus we have many townlands of the same name. There are plenty of stories about visitors driving 200 miles from Dublin Airport to the wrong Ballymoney. (There are 21). Plus they won't tell you where exactly in the townland to go either unless you have an Eircode for a specific address (which I don't think you will). The devices sometimes just give up when you are in the general area. Not always what you want. They are very sound for a journey like Dublin Airport to Sligo town but in rural areas, sometimes less helpful. That's when you may need a decent local map or guide.

Diane,

You ask whether Griffiths is the only guide to Patrick & Ann Rogan’s land. Griffiths is the first comprehensive survey of Ireland that links homes to maps. The tithes list farmers (but not the rest of the households eg labourers, shops, public buildings etc) and they don’t routinely have any maps. 

The National Archives in Dublin do have some estate maps but they don’t have comprehensive maps of who was on each piece of land in the early 1800s all across Ireland. Some estate owners did have maps compiled. Not everyone did (it cost money) and some have survived.  If you think about landowners like any ordinary business, what do people do with their records? Some think, well the storeroom is full and I don’t need these any more and out they go. Others think this is of historic importance I’ll keep it. And in other cases the records just pile up till the owner dies and a clearance team empties the place. Plus in Ireland, many landowners who had decided their records were of value sent them to the Public Record Office in Dublin for safe keeping, but as you probably know, it was burned down in 1922 during the civil war and they were nearly all lost. Bookaun (Browne) appears to have been owned by Richard Brinkley and Bookaun (Tottenham) by Charles Tottenham. You could get a researcher to see if either of those landlords have records in the National Archives in Dublin, deposited post 1922 obviously. (You could search the catalogue yourself, but if you do find anything, you need to get someone to go in person to look the record up). 

Bookaun looks to have been one single townland at the time of the tithes (1833) but by Griffiths (1857) it had been split into Tottenham & Browne. I have attached a list of the tenants of both. Looks as though plot 1 in Tottenham may have been tenanted by a priest. There was no house there, just land only. So he probably lived in the Rectory/parochial house. Since you are apparently struggling to find the relevant maps I have taken a couple of pictures of the map and the Google Earth view of both Bookaun townlands. Tottenham looks to be 1 single farm today.

With regard to exploring the area, it’s only a couple of hundred acres so that could be done on foot. Indeed quite a bit of those townlands don’t have any roads into them anyway. (They’ll be accessible on a tractor but not by car). But you would need a car to get there. There won’t be any public transport on those minor roads. Taxis will be pretty scarce too. There are public roads on 2 sides of the townlands but the only way to see them at close quarters would be on foot.

You ask about trying to get someone to locate where the Carolin farm was. You could try hiring a professional genealogist to see if they can unearth anything in the National Archives but the underlying problem is that map creation at a detailed level hadn’t really started in Ireland when they lived there. Griffiths is the earliest set of records that routinely shows most farms. The Valuation itself dates from 1848 to 1864 depending on whereabouts in Ireland you are searching. The accompanying maps are usually around the 1860s. Prior to that individual landowners may have had a map drawn up, as I mentioned, but most didn’t or they have been lost.  Judging by the names that remain from the tithes through to Griffiths Roger & I think your Carolin household was in Bookaun (Browne), and you can probably exclude the farms that remain, though it’s possible they expanded and acquired the land given up by those who left.  If you compare the tithes with Griffiths you will see there are fewer farms in Griffiths. People were pouring out of Ireland all through the 1800s especially around the time of the big famine.  Those who remained often took over land that had been given up so some farms got a bit bigger.

But unless you can find a map somewhere, no I don’t think anyone is going to be able to tell you exactly where the Carolin farm was. But you will be able to know it was within a certain likely area, comprising 100 acres or so. (Your ancestors left 180 years ago, and I'd be surprised if anyone local will know about their farm today). 

Hi Diane, are you still planning a visit to Ireland in 2022. If so please get in touch at info@irelandxo.com

Best wishes,

Denise. IrelandXO