Valuation Office records

[RichardK]

Does anyone have experience of using the valuation office's records?  I've got a few instances where I've found people in Griffith's Valuation but they appear to have died / disappeared before civil registration started.  If I go to the valuation office, is it relatvely straightforward to find out when a piece of land was transferred to others and to whom it was transferred?  Do you have to make an appointment?
Thanks
R

[aghadowey]

What you probably want are the Valuation notebooks which record changes in tenants/ownership. They will not give an exact date of death but can narrow down a possible death within a year or so.

[shanew147]

It's a while since I looked at these but the books for many counties are in the Valuation Office in Dublin (Irish Life Centre, near the GRO research room).

The canceled land books start off from the time of Griffths and record each time a property changes owner or lease-holder. As each change occurs the previous entry is struck through (but still readable) and the new details are written in a different colour ink. Sometimes there additional notes added about new or abandoned buildings etc. After a death you can sometimes you will see changes in ownership recorded as 'Reps of J. Murphy' - i.e. representatives.

You need to know the correct DED (electoral district) which covers the townland you searching for to order the correct volumes for the area. These books can sometimes cover up to the 1970s/80s.

(I'll attach a sample of one of the pages... when I can find it.)


Shane

[eadaoin]

the Valuation Books used to be free to Family Historians, but they started charging a few years back - at the time they said it would be IR£3 per book, I think (which is dear, as you might have to look through 3 or 4 for each area).

I've no idea what the current charges are - must drop in some day ..

eadaoin


P.S. I see as a Senior Citizen, I can now look once more FREE!
I knew there were compensations .. roll on free travel later this year!!

[RichardK]

Thank you all, that's very helpful.

Many thanks
Richard.

[shanew147]

some additional images showing some details and the headings on the page from one of the the Wicklow books...

Many of the details, map references, valuation figures etc, are very similar to the layout on Griffiths valuation.

image top left - showing several changes in ownership to property 1b in the townland

image top right - various notes on the plots of land

lower image - headings on a page


Shane

[RichardK]

Thanks Shane - very useful to see the sort of thing there might be.
Many thanks for posting those.
Richard.