Irish genealogy

Irish genealogy - Search for your ancestor and hibernian roots and trace your family tree: "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."

General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland. Based on the Census of Ireland for the Year 1851.
1861.
Reprint, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984.

this handbook was used to help me by a librarian of the National Library of Ireland

Contact Us: "The main contact details for the National Library are listed"

Irish Ancestors/Placenames: "HELP EXAMPLES

IRISH PLACE NAMES


The single most important item of information for Irish family history research is a precise place of origin, and the most important tool in identifying Irish placenames is the 1851 General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, parishes and Baronies of Ireland.

From here you can search the entire Index, together with street listings from Dublin, Cork and Belfast cities, more than 65,000 entries in all.

Remember you can search for a placename either in the whole of Ireland ('Simple') or confine it to a particular area ('Advanced').

You can also use wildcards:

* % (percent) represents any sequence of letters.
* _ (underscore) represents any individual letter."