Ordnance Survey Memoirs Books.

[Christopher]

The Gould Genealogy website has a page about "The Ordnance Survey Memoirs" which are a good source for the history of the northern half of Ireland during the years just prior to the Famine. In 1824 the British Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, authorised the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland at a scale of 6" (six Inches) to one mile. This Survey was primarily to map all Townland boundaries and record their names. The Memoirs were written in the 1830's to accompany the 6" Ordnance Survey maps, but with one exception were not published at the time. In the latest edition they act as a 19th century Domesday book and are essential to understanding the cultural heritage of our communities. The OS Memoirs document the landscape and situation, buildings and antiquities, land-holdings and population, employment and livelihood of the parishes. They are published in forty volumes and provide a good insight into the life as it was in Irish communities over one hundred and fifty years ago.