|
Glossary
A
few basic explanations of terms you will come across in
researching in Ulster.
Townland
The
townland is a physical piece of land and is the most
important unit of measure and description that is found in
Ireland, Each Parish has within it anything from 10 to
over 200 townlands. There are 60,462 townlands in all
Ireland. The `Townland` vary in size from about 15 to
about 3000 acres. and frequently got its name from some
local characteristic, a hill, a bog, a church, etc It was
the administrative unit until 1898 and, as such, it was
the basis for tithes, taxes, census, Griffiths Valuation
etc. Knowing the parish allows the researcher to focus
then on the smaller unit. The townland was used in much
the same way that today we use post codes or zip codes. It
was used in official and documents - leases, deeds, wills,
muster rolls, tax schedules, Griffiths Valuation;
Ordinance Survey Memoirs etc as the location of the person
concerned. Knowing the townland means that you can
literally go to the place where your ancestors trod.
Civil
Parish
These are
important units for record purposes. They generally
contain around twenty-five to thirty townlands as well as
towns and villages. There are around 2,500 civil parishes
in the country. Parishes are generally listed within each
county although they may also be divided by barony. In
many cases civil parishes straddle county and barony
boundaries. Parishes in
Ulster.
Barony
A barony is
a portion of a county or a group of parishes. Historically
it was introduced by the Anglo-Normans and is usually
based on a tribal territory or "tuatha". Barony boundaries
do not always conform to those of the civil parishes
within them. There are 273 baronies in Ireland.
County
The county
is a major and consistent division of land. The counties
were gradually established by the English since the
arrival of the Normans. The first counties - Dublin,
Kildare and Louth - were established in the early 13th
Century, whereas the last counties, those of Ulster, were
not established until after 1600. There are thirty-two
counties and these are formed into four Provinces.
Province
The four
Provinces of Ireland are Connaught, Leinster, Munster and
Ulster. Each comprises a number of counties.The Orrs are
almost exclusively found in the ancient Province of Ulster
which was made up of the 9 counties of: Armagh; Antrim ;
Cavan ; Donegal ; Down ; Fermanagh ; Londonderry ;
Monaghan; and Tyrone. This use of Ulster should not be
confused with the Northern Ireland of today which is part
of the UK and only six of the nine counties - Armagh;
Antrim ; Down ; Fermanagh; Londonderry ; and Tyrone
Poor Law
Under the
Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 commissioners were empowered to
"unite so many townlands as they think fit to be a union
for the relief of the destitute poor". A Union was a group
of parishes usually centred on a market town, where a
workhouse might be built, with parishes and townlands as
subdivisions. Rates, land based taxes, were collected
within these areas for maintenance to the poor. They were
named after a large town. The same districts later became
used as General Register Districts.
Schedule of PLUs.
Top |
