Griffith's Valuation - same person 2 different places?

[WD8]

Hello. I've recently started my family tree and know that my GG grandparents were from LetterKenny. Their marriage banns were published in St.Eunan's 09/05/1857: Daniel McConnellogue and Catherine Kelly. In Griffith's, I have found Daniel in 2 different townlands (Keeloges and Letterkenny). Am I to assume it's the same person and different years? I imagine people may have moved around and changed residence? I'm unsure as to how I can correctly identify my family member without just making assumptions. Can anybody tell me how I should go about this? I am new to all of this! Thank you in advance. K.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Check to see whether the properties both contained a house, because you do often get someone with a farm in one place and then extra land nearby in another. So is it a house, offices and land in one townland and just land in another?

In my experience, where someone had property in more than  one townland Griffiths clerks usually noted that by putting the main residence in brackets after their name, in the townland where they didn't reside. So if there are 2 houses in Griffiths and no note about a second townland, my feeling is that there are probably 2 different people of the same name.

It is possible to trace forward to see what happened to the properties using the Valuation Revision records (in the Valuation Office in Dublin). That can also assist in determining who lived where.

[WD8]

Thank you for the pointers. I'll check it out. I suppose two Daniels could be father and son? One other quick question...is it just the Head of the family who is named? That is, if someone had 4 children, for example, am I correct in assuming that their names wouldn't appear on the Valuation? Thanks again!

[Elwyn Soutter]

Where there's a father and son of the same name in the same townland Griffiths normally put senior and junior to distinguish them.

There was no mention of dependants in Griffiths. Like a modern lease or conveyance, the focus was on who was the householder. Others who lived there weren't relevant as they were not responsible for the rates etc.

[Sinann]

Also if the mother was still alive she may well be listed rather than her son and if he ‘married into’ a farm it could be his father or mother in law listed.

This explains GV very well
https://leitrim-roscommon.com/GRIFFITH/Griffiths.PDF

[WD8]

Thank you for this. I think it's going to be difficult as I don't know the names of my relative's parents but there are a few people with the same surname in the same area so I'm assuming they're probably all family. Maybe I'll post something on Look Ups to see if anybody can help with finding the parents. Thanks again!