If you like the article about Griffith's Valuation, written by?James R. Reilly,?(referenced below) you'll love the book by the same author. It's an invaluable resource for an Irish researcher who needs to understand Griffith's Valuation.? The book is called "Richard Griffith & His Valuations of Ireland" and is available for $22.95?at www.Genealogical.com, Item #CF9371. Don't leave home without it. Message: 4 Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:09:08 -0800 From: Geralyn Barry <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [IRL-GALWAY] The Griffith's Valuation To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed James R. Reilly (who wrote the excellent article Paddy mentioned) also wrote a short book called Richard Griffith and His Valuations of Ireland. It has even more information in the same vein as the article. You can see a preview of Reilly's book at Google books. The page views will be limited, but you can get a good idea of the usefulness of this book from what you can see online. I include below a link to the cover page, from which you can look at the Table of Contents and other available pages. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=MqAYwjPXVngC&dq=Richard+Griffith+and+His+Valuations+of+Ireland&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=0iUUHkm0mu&sig=93wQLYEkvVdeZPsfIzECHYSH7mk I recommend Reilly's book for anyone who wants to get more out of the entries in Griffith's Valuation and its supporting documents. The Valuation in Ireland was a complex thing. It is a record of property valuation and taxation, not a census. (And as with most taxation, it never ended!) It was begun in different years in different areas, and procedures changed when new laws were passed. The Valuation records include several different manuscript books which preceded (in time) the printed or published version, which is commonly called Griffith's. Griffith's was then followed by years of Valuation Revision lists (the taxes being updated, names of old owners being struck off the list and new owners being penciled in, etc), all the way to recent times. Many of these documents that precede or follow Griffith's are available through microfilms from The Family History Library. If you really want to understand the documents you are looking at, you need to know something about them. Read. The more you know, the more you will be able to deduce from reco rds. There is also an excellent article by David Ouimette (pronounced WE-MET) about the manuscript Valuation records (House Books, Field Books, Perambulation Books, etc.). It appeared in Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jan 2006) of The Septs, a publication of the Irish Genealogical Society International (IGSI), based in Minnesota, USA. If you are a member, you can access all the back issues of The Septs online at their website - including Ouimette's article. That is sometimes more convenient than searching for your dog-eared copy of a particular issue... I have to make a plug here for the IGSI (Irish Genealogical Society International). Their website is at http://www.irishgenealogical.org/. If you are a member, you can view and download any of the issues of IGSI?s quarterly journal The Septs since the beginning of its publication in 1980. It is a great publication, with many articles written by well-known Irish researchers. (So you could read David Ouimette's excellent article yourself online if you join.) They have been running a special on membership recently (not sure it is still going on) - get 2 others to join with you and you get your membership free. The details were at their website. There are many other reasons to join beyond receiving The Septs. They have a wonderful library in Minnesota, and the staff will do lookups for members for a nominal charge. Perhaps several people on the list will want to get together and join... I have been a member for many year and have benefited greatly. Regards, Geralyn Wood Barry in Oregon, USA