Figuratively speaking of course.............. but as regards being moved from one administrative division/district to another on paper...........literally - from one county to another. So, a person who does not live in Ireland decides to research their Irish ancestry and they come up against our various remaining archival resources with their land divisions. Things for you to realise/remember. 1. Townlands in various civil parishes did not necessarily belong to a religious parish of the same name. 2. Townlands in one religious parish within a particular diocese were sometimes moved to another religious parish (albeit lying beside the one they used to belong to, and in the same diocese) by the Bishop of that Diocese - this applies to both Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Dioceses. In other words, your ancestors may have belonged to one religious parish today and their records may be in the books of that parish (if they exist) and they may have belonged to another tomorrow and later records may be found in a different set of parish records. 3. There is more than one townland index.................VERY IMPORTANT - and spellings from one to the other may change. The main townland index used by genealogical researchers and available on the internet is the IRL-ATLAS hosted on the Leitrim Roscommon web site. Two points to remember in relation to this A. the townlands listed are those which existed at the time of the 1841 census. Townlands changed names, new townlands were created between then and the following census. Just because you can't find the townland that you are looking for listed in the Irl-Atlas it does not mean that it did not exist ever. Also, it may simply mean that the spelling as you haveit is not as itis in the Index. B. There are mistakes in this atlas - I've found townlands listed as being in the wrong county when I compare it to the original hard copies as shown in the book that this on-line index was created from. Other townland indices such as Townlands in Poor Law Unions based on the townland lists as published by the General Registrar's Office 1885-1889 show townlands that are not listed in the 1851 publication (Sean Ruad Irl-Atlas website). 4. Spellings in a locality may and do differ (even today) from official spellings as per the Ordnance Survey maps/Townland indices as listed above. Local people will spell a place name as it is spelled locally, regardless of 'official' spellings and this happens on documents such as birth records. Moving townlands - well - you all have some understanding of Administrative dvisions in your own countries. Ours (those in Ireland) can be important to you as researchers. For example, take county Sligo in 1885 a number of townlands listed as being in county Sligo in the 'Townlands in Poor Law Unions' belonged to county Mayo in 1901. All the townlands that I know of belonged to the Ballina Poor Law Union or Civil Registration District in 1885 and still did in 1901 - but were listed as being in Co. Sligo in 1885 and Co. Mayo in 1901 (1901 census) What does this mean for any person whose ancestors came from any of the townlands that 'moved'? Well, first of all, they would know that their ancestors came from county Sligo...........so, they'd take a look at the Tithe Applotment Books for Sligo, they'd look at the Griffiths for Sligo..........and then, they'd look for the civil registrations for Sligo - they may or may not realise that the district they should be looking for is Ballina - which everybody would automatically associate with County Mayo......... and maybe, even if they did realise that the registration would have been in the Ballina district - then maybe they'd get copies of the records for that district and find their ancestors. The record they'd get may not say Co. Mayo - it would probably say Counties Mayo & Sligo, so, they'd still be looking in Sligo for their ancestors............ On to the next resource.............the 1901 census townland index - and they'd find the townland name that they were looking for but listed as part of county Mayo..........and they'd perhaps think, can'tbe my townland, has to be another of the same name. We do have so many townlands of the same name here in Ireland and in the same county even. Anyway - they may or may not decide to check out that Mayo townland - whilst............all the time, it's really the townland they are looking for, except it was moved from one county to the other for whatever administrative reason. So - if the townland you are interested in is close to the county border *NEVER* exclude any townland of that name that you find in later archival resources for the county next door. Administrative divisions are not necessarily fixed in one county. The Poor Law Union or Civil Registration District most often takes in townlands in a county next door. It was only about 10 miles in circumference - and our counties are very small........some of them 15 miles broad/wide at their widest point. Recently I was in the NA and there were some older people sitting beside me who live in Carlow...........or so they think/thought...........'Graigue' is the name of the place - so, they were looking in the County Carlow Griffiths and I didn't mean to be listening to their conversation, but there were three of them in it! So I told them maybe they didn't live in Co. Carlow and to look in the Laois/Queen's County Griffiths, that Graigue is actually in Laois.............a few streets/part of it in Carlow - it's a suburb to Carlow town. After they found what they wanted we got to talking about Graigue - if you live on one street and need an ambulance, then it's a Portlaoise ambulance goes out............another street and it's a Carlow ambulance - and then we laughed as to who they should be supporting in county matches All these little things were designed to totally confuse genealogists :-) but don't worry about it all - just remember moving townlands when you can't find where you want where it should be - expecially if you've already found it in another resource. Jane http://www.from-ireland.net