Glossary Civil Parish These are important units for record purposes. They generally contain around twenty-five to thirty townlands as well as towns and villages. There are around 2,500 civil parishes in the country. Parishes are generally listed within each county although they may also be divided by barony. In many cases civil parishes straddle county and barony boundaries. Barony A barony is a portion of a county or a group of parishes. Historically it was introduced by the Anglo-Normans and is usually based on a tribal territory or "tuatha". Barony boundaries do not always conform to those of the civil parishes within them. There are 273 boundaries in Ireland. County The county is a major and consistent division of land. The counties were gradually established by the English since the arrival of the Normans. The first counties - Dublin, Kildare and Louth - were established in the early 13th Century, whereas the last counties, those of Ulster, were not established until after 1600. There are thirty-two counties and these are formed into four Provinces. Province The four Provinces of Ireland are Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. Each comprises a number of counties. Poor Law Under the Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 commissioners were empowered to "unite so many townlands as they think fit to be a union for the relief of the destitute poor". A Union was a group of parishes usually centred on a market town, where a workhouse might be built, with parishes and townlands as subdivisions. Rates, land based taxes, were collected within these areas for maintenance to the poor. They were named after a large town. The same districts later became used as General Register Districts. cheers cara