Members, Ref. Jim McN's note on book. A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland by: Brian Mitchell Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc. Baltimore Maryland Copyright 1986 Fifth Printing 1996 ISBN 0-8063-1152-5 Picked up "A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland", book from our local branch library. Many genealogical type books have to be ordered in from the main branch downtown and the good books (old, valuable) are not allowed out of the main branch and must be read in the Genealogy Reading Room at the the main library. Keeps control and ensures that they do not get up and take flight. As it turns out this book is held by main LDS/FHC branch library in town. The book is made up of maps covering all counties. Each county has three maps Donegal as example: 1. The Parishes of County Donegal 2. The Baronies of County Donegal 3. The Poor Law Unions of County Donegal Cork is subdivided into East, Middle, West. Below is the Intro page from the book. Most of this data is already available on the Net, two listed for reference, there are plenty more out there. http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/fuses/civilparish/index.cfm?fuseaction=GetMap&CityCounty=donegal http://www.geocities.com/emerald_ancestry/towns.htm Most of the maps and parish type books were printed before we all started using computers for genwork and immense value, since the advent of the PC and the proliferation of data on the net, they have limited appeal. Just about any Irish related site has some form of parish listing or maps or give a reference to a site. But all said and done I still have a hard time remembering all those names and townlands and a paper copy sure comes in-handy at times. Must be poplar since it is in its fifth printing. Bob Cdn. ==================================================== INTRODUCTION Ancestral research in Ireland requires familiarity with historical records and an understanding of how these records are organized. The geographical dimension in Irish genealogy is of the utmost importance, as historical records were gathered by various administrative divisions. Books such as Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research, by Margaret Dickson Falley (1962; repr. by <http://repr.by/> Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1981) and Irish Genealogy-A Record Finder, edited by Donal Begley (Heraldic Artists Ltd., Dublin, 1981) have described in great detail both the nature of the records available and the administrative divisions. It is intended that this volume of maps be used in conjunction with the General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland (Alexander Thom, Dublin, 1861; repr. by <http://repr.by/> Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1984). This book will identify the county, barony, parish and poor law union of every townland in Ireland. The townland is the smallest and most ancient of Irish land divisions, and its identification is essential to researchers who' wish to pinpoint the precise origin of their ancestors. The townland was named at an early period, and it usually referred to a very identifiable landmark in the local area such as a mountain, a bog, an oak forest, a village, a fort or a church. The townland became standardized as a basic division in the seventeenth-century surveys by people with little knowledge of the Irish language. As a consequence many place names were either lost or had their meaning or construction altered. A record of townland names, shapes and sizes for all Ireland exists in the Maps of the Ordnance Survey completed in 1846 at the scale of six inches to one mile. There are 60,462 townlands in Ireland. It is not within the scope of this volume to map townlands. It is, however, the intention of this atlas to locate six major administrative divisions; namely, counties, baronies, civil parishes, dioceses, poor law unions and probate districts. All main record sources are organized by at least one of these divisions.