Downings, Prosperous

[Katharine F]

I have a birth certificate of a person where the place of birth just says Downings, Prosperous.
 I thought this must have been a farm or small holding or some such, however on googling it it seems quite big and there is a north and a south Downings.

Would there be any way of finding out where the person was actually born? The certificate is from the first half of the 20th century but after the 1911 census.

Katharine

[Maggsie]

Hi,
Yes you can get a birth record depends on the year. Also depends if you are in Ireland.
What is the year/date and Name and I will see if I can get it.
Prosperous is North and slightly west of Nass.
Maggsie

[Sinann]

North is 878 acres and south 475 acres so not very big.
Unless the couple moved to the area shortly before the chances are they are living on a family farm so if you can find them or their relations in the 1911 Census it might be possible to narrow down where they live.

You have to bear in mind they won't have house numbers, addresses in rural Ireland are quite vague even today, we rely on the postperson knowing where you live which is why they are introducing individual postcodes for each property in the country later this year.

If it is a family farm they are living on than it's possible some of the family still live on the same farm today so a look in the phone book might do it.

[Katharine F]

Thank you both for your answers.
I do have birth and marriage certificates and in 1911 some of the family were living on a farm. When they were all alive they did make it sound as though they lived on some sort of  a farm so perhaps it was the same place.

[Sinann]

If you have traced the family back to the mid 1800s you should be able to find the farm on Griffith's Valuation.
Place search
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=placeSearch

Name search
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

The plot numbers on the map on this site don't always match the plot numbers on the list but you can often still work out which farm is which.

[hanes teulu]

Could it be "Downing's House, Prosperous"?

google  maps.osi.ie
click on "Search" - top right
enter "downings house"
click on "Downing House, Downings, North Kildare"
displays modern map view.
click on any "Historic" search - bottom right.

[Sinann]

Downings House looking at the 1911 Census I would think belongs to John Whaley. It's the only 1st class house in Downings North.

[Katharine F]

They wouldn't have been wealthy enough to live in a 1st class house.

Sinann Sound as if Irish addresses are rather like some very rural places I have lived in England. Only the postman and local delivery people can find them.

[Sinann]

They wouldn't have been wealthy enough to live in a 1st class house.

Sinann Sound as if Irish addresses are rather like some very rural places I have lived in England. Only the postman and local delivery people can find them.

Yep that's how it is.
Do you want to give us the name to have a look or are you happy to look yourself?