Hello to all, I am in need of a bit of help in interperting the following which I obtained from the Landed Estate records for sales of townlands in Ireland. The lease particulars are given for each occupier...the following is open to interpertation...it was written in 1858. "Lease dated 1 February 1840, from same Lessor (I take it that is the Lessor which was noted in the previous lease), to this tennant (previously named-Thomas Ryan) for 31 years or the lives of Lesee aged 40, still alive, John Ryan and John Banville, both deceased." My questions--Would the age of the Lesee (Thomas) be 40 at the time the Lease was first written (1840) or at the time that the estate records were drawn up (1858)? What did the latter 2 deceased men named have to do with this lease? What does the 'lives' of the Lesee mean? (note pleural) Thanks for ANY input, Nancy ...thankful in Orlando...heartfelt prayers for those in Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

A good article by Kyle Betit about Irish land records can be found online at http://www.irishabroad.com/yourroots/expert/landrecords.asp Here is a quote from there: One type of lease that was common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, having great potential for genealogical information, was the "lease for lives." A "lease for lives" remains in effect as long as the specific person(s) named in the lease are still living. As soon as all of the "lives" named in the lease have died, the lease ends. Alternatively, a lease could be granted for a set number of years (such as 31 years, 100 years, or 999 years). A tenant could also rent from year to year without holding a lease of any kind. See that article for more. And you can do a Google search on the term "lease of lives" or "lease for lives" and you will find many more references. The "lives" named in the lease did not have to be someone related to the lessee. After many people began to emigrate, landlords realized that determining if someone who emigrated was deceased was difficult. So, the "lives" used were sometimes famous people, whose deaths would be generally known. Geralyn Wood Barry in Oregon, USA nancy c wrote: >Hello to all, > >I am in need of a bit of help in interperting the following which I >obtained from the Landed Estate records for sales of townlands in Ireland. > The lease particulars are given for each occupier...the following is open >to interpertation...it was written in 1858. > >"Lease dated 1 February 1840, from same Lessor (I take it that is the >Lessor which was noted in the previous lease), to this tennant (previously >named-Thomas Ryan) for 31 years or the lives of Lesee aged 40, still >alive, John Ryan and John Banville, both deceased." > >My questions--Would the age of the Lesee (Thomas) be 40 at the time the >Lease was first written (1840) or at the time that the estate records were >drawn up (1858)? > >What did the latter 2 deceased men named have to do with this lease? > >What does the 'lives' of the Lesee mean? (note pleural) > >Thanks for ANY input, > >Nancy ...thankful in Orlando...heartfelt prayers for those in Louisianna, >Mississippi and Alabama > >

Hi What you have may be referred to as a lease for lives. Three persons would be named as the tenants. The lease would be in effect as long as one of those 3 persons was alive. It would not be unusual for a child to be one of the 3 named as a tenant ... as the child would be expected to be alive years beyond the adults. My interpretation is that Thomas was 40 in 1858. Pat **** All outgoing mail scanned by Norton Anti-virus **** ----- Original Message ----- From: "nancy c" <eugeniatyl@yahoo.com> To: <IRL-GALWAY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:45 PM Subject: [GALWAY] interpertation of landed estate records > Hello to all, > > I am in need of a bit of help in interperting the following which I > obtained from the Landed Estate records for sales of townlands in Ireland. > The lease particulars are given for each occupier...the following is open > to interpertation...it was written in 1858. > > "Lease dated 1 February 1840, from same Lessor (I take it that is the > Lessor which was noted in the previous lease), to this tennant (previously > named-Thomas Ryan) for 31 years or the lives of Lesee aged 40, still > alive, John Ryan and John Banville, both deceased." > > My questions--Would the age of the Lesee (Thomas) be 40 at the time the > Lease was first written (1840) or at the time that the estate records were > drawn up (1858)? > > What did the latter 2 deceased men named have to do with this lease? > > What does the 'lives' of the Lesee mean? (note pleural) > > Thanks for ANY input, > > Nancy ...thankful in Orlando...heartfelt prayers for those in Louisianna, > Mississippi and Alabama > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > > > ==== IRL-GALWAY Mailing List ==== > New!! Irish-American Mailing List, > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Ethnic-Irish/IRISH-AMERICAN.html > To unsub or change your Irl-Galway mailing mode: > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/IRL/IRL-GALWAY.html > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx > >