This Irish Genealogy site offers the Irish descendant (from New York, Canada, UK, Australia...) the chance to trace their Irish family tree and search for their surname origins and the records of their Irish ancestor's birth, marriage or death.

Kyle J. Betit is a professional genealogist, lecturer and author residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kyle specializes in Irish and immigration research. Kyle Betit is Research Director of ProGenealogists, Inc., in Salt Lake City and the author of the Irish Genealogy Pages at http://ireland.progenealogists.com

Place names and geographical divisions are very important for successful genealogy research in Ireland. Land in Ireland is divided into different jurisdictions, religious and political, in a way that can be complicated to understand. Provinces are divided into counties which are divided into civil parishes. Civil parishes, in turn, are made up of townlands, each of which is an area of land with a certain acreage and set of boundaries. Within the official townlands, there may be other smaller subdivisions such as field and farm names. Sometimes these smaller subdivisions are referred to as “sub-townland denominations” or “minor place names.” Villages and towns also fall geographically within one or more townlands. Cities often include more than one civil parish.

A “denomination” in a historical Irish record usually refers to a particular place within a parish, such as a townland, village, or part of a townland. There are also small communities within townlands not large enough to be villages or towns; these communities have unique names and may only include a few houses.

In the systems of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland (Anglican), provinces are divided into dioceses (each headed by a bishop). The dioceses are divided into church parishes. And again church parishes are made up of townlands and towns.

In records of an emigrant (such as a tombstone, family papers, death certificate, or published biographical sketch), the most common Irish place names given are provinces, geographical regions, counties, parishes, townlands, and townland sub-denominations. Often, the place name cannot be found on a road map or atlas or in a gazetteer. Not being able to identify the location of a place name will halt your efforts to find immigrant origins. Successfully identifying a place name in Ireland not only identifies the emigrant's origin, but it also opens up the possibility of searching a variety of other record sources.

The following are some of the geographical subdivisions of Ireland, from largest to smallest.

Historical Provinces: The four historical provinces are Ulster (north), Leinster (east), Munster (south), Connaught (west). Most often passed down in family lore among immigrants are the provinces of Connaught and Ulster. This is especially true for Catholic immigrants from Connaught and of Protestant (including Presbyterian and Church of Ireland) emigrants from Ulster.

The corresponding provinces of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland are called Armagh (for Ulster), Dublin (for Leinster), Cashel (for Munster), and Tuam (for Connaught). Each province is headed by an archbishop.

Geographical Regions: There are geographical region names in Ireland which an immigrant may have identified as a place of origin. For example, family tradition may hold that an ancestor was from Connemara, the mountainous and coastal region of western Galway; the "midlands" in the County Longford area; the "lake district" in County Fermanagh; or the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry.

Counties: The island of Ireland has 32 counties. 26 counties are in the Republic of Ireland. 6 of the Ulster counties are in Northern Ireland In the case of county names, a quick search of a map or reference book will tell you what the correct standardized county name speling really is. For example, you may find Caban in a record, but it is really Cavan; Derri is Derry (or Londonderry), Mao is Mayo, and Mead is Meath. Following is a list of the Irish counties, divided by historical province:

CONNAUGHT

Galway
Leitrim
Mayo
Roscommon
Sligo

LEINSTER

Carlow
Dublin
Kildare
Kilkenny
Laois or Leix (formerly Queens County)
Longford
Louth
Meath
Offaly (formerly Kings County)
Westmeath
Wicklow

MUNSTER

Clare
Cork
Kerry
Limerick
Tipperary
Waterford
Wexford

ULSTER

Antrim
Armagh
Cavan
Donegal
Down
Fermanagh
Londonderry or Derry
Monaghan
Tyrone

Parishes: Ireland has both civil parishes (government units grouped together into counties) and church or ecclesiastical parishes (grouped together into dioceses, in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland). The names and boundaries of the two types of parishes often differ. It is important when tracing a Catholic ancestor to know both the civil parish and the corresponding Catholic parish in which the ancestor lived. Brian Mitchell's A Guide to Irish Parish Registers (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988) lists the Catholic parishes corresponding to each civil parish. Samuel Lewis' 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland lists, under each civil parish, the Roman Catholic parishes and chapels. Local Catholic parish histories are also useful.

Townlands and Sub-denominations: Immigrants often identified either their townland of residence or a sub-denomination name within the townland as their place of origin. The spelling of townland names varied widely and was not standardized until the 1830s. Often townland names are formed from Irish Gaelic words.

Cities, Towns and Villages: The terms “city” and “town” had technical meaning in Ireland, and a city or town was an incorporated place. There were many smaller villages that did not have a corporation throughout Ireland.


Be cautious if you discover that your Irish ancestor was supposed to be from a city or town. Immigrants often stated they were from a certain populated place such as Athlone (a town on the border of counties Roscommon and Westmeath), when they really were from outside the populated town in a nearby townland. Also be careful about statements that an immigrant was from Cork, Dublin, or Londonderry (Derry). These are the names of both cities and counties, and the distinction can become blurred. Also, these cities were ports from which emigrants left Ireland. What was stated in family tradition as the family's place of origin could have actually been the place of departure, and the emigrant may have been from an entirely different county.

You may have found an Irish place name in a record where your ancestor settled abroad, or a place name may have been passed down in your family tradition of where your ancestors came from in Ireland. The following are some sources that can help you to figure out where exactly that place is and what sort of place name it is.


Townland Indexes

The 1851, 1871, and 1901 versions of the General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland may be used to find the official spelling and the location of each townland in Ireland. The 1871 (FHL #476999 item 2) and 1901 (FHL #865092) indexes are available on microfilm at the Family History Library. The 1851 edition was reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company and is widely available in book form.

The townland names of Ireland have been placed in a computerized database on the Internet in the IreAtlas Townland Database web site: http://www.seanruad.com/ . The townlands are also indexed online in the Irish Ancestors pages of the Irish Times web site http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/ . These databases can be used to pinpoint the location of a townland.


Maps for Use in Ireland

1. The second edition (2002) of Brian Mitchell’s A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland includes maps of each county divided by civil parish, Roman Catholic parish, barony, and poor law union. The book also shows what dioceses parts of counties are in, and where Presbyterian churches were located.
   
2. The modern Discovery Series (Republic of Ireland) and Discoverer Series (Northern Ireland) maps, produced by the Ordnance Survey Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, are useful for getting to a townland.
   
3. Various web sites include details maps of Ireland and other countries, including http://www.MultiMap.com , http://www.Expedia.com , and http://www.Mapquest.com . MultiMap.com actually includes the very detailed Discoverer Series maps for Northern Ireland.
   
4. Some counties have civil parish maps and townland maps available on the appropriate pages of the Ireland GenWeb Project online: http://www.irelandgenweb.org .
   
5. The civil parishes of the nine counties of Ulster are shown in maps accessible from the following web page of the Ulster Historical Foundation: http://www.ancestryireland.co.uk/index.php?filename=civilparishmaps
   

Additional Sources

Addresses

Kyle J. Betit is Research Director of the professional genealogy research firm ProGenealogists, Inc., in Salt Lake City. He is a widely recognized speaker, author, and educator in the field of Irish Genealogy. He is co-author with Dwight A. Radford of A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors (Betterway Books, 2001). He makes frequent trips to Ireland to conduct research for clients. You may contact Kyle by e-mail at roots@irishancestor.com or visit his Irish Web Pages at http://ireland.progenealogists.com .