The statement that "many people leased land in various locations but didn't live on it" applies almost entirely to Protestant families, at least before land-purchase legislation passed in the 1880s and 1809s. Multiple leases for Catholics prior to that time were virtually unknown and had been since the successive Elizabeth, Cromwellian, and Williamite confiscations/plantations--leases were simply too hard to get and the rents far too high for Catholic families to afford more than one. An additional problem for Catholics was that from the Elizabethan settlement until the Catholic relief acts of the late 18th century, Catholics could not will any land that they were lucky enough actually to own to just one son, which would have kept their holdings large enough to be economically viable. As a final nail in the coffin, land in Leitrim is for the most part fairly marginal for agriculture, which made crop failures all too likely, especially given the small size of leases--there! were s even of them between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of the Great Famine in 1845--so almost all lease holders were likely at some point to fall behind on their rent, which made them subject to summary eviction. Nancy Gray -------------- Original message from Cummings@hotmail.com: -------------- > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Classification: Query > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/YWC.2ACI/5421.3 > > Message Board Post: > > Griffiths Valuation was an assessment for property tax and many people weren't > included in it because it had various restrictions regarding what property might > be included to be valued for the tax. Trying to use it as a source for where > your ancestors originated may very well lead you to trying to research people > who have no connection whatsoever to your ancestors. > > Griffiths is useful if you know a) specifically where in County Leitrim your > family originated b) the name of the ancestor who was living in that area when > Griffiths was done in Leitrim in 1856 and you want to see if indeed the family > residence was listed in the property tax. Many people rented land in various > locations just for farming and didn't live there. That also results in > duplication of names in various locations for the same person. > > Griffiths contains no family information, for example, no ages or family > relationships. The detailed Griffiths records, available online fee based > through http://www.irighorigins.com includes "occupiers" and "lessors" and shows > specifically if indeed a dwelling was on the property or it was just vacant > land. > > If you're sure that all the members of your families were born in County Leitrim > you can have Leitrim Heritage Centre research the records county wide for you to > find possible baptismal records. > > If the families were RC, many of the RC parish registers don't go back far > enough to find their baptismal records. So the absence of a baptismal record > wouldn't mean they weren't born, i.e. baptised in a certain location, just that > no surviving records remain for that location. You wouldn't know that without > knowing the specific birth location because that's the only way you could > determine what the surviving records are for that place. If they were Church of > Ireland (Anglican) many of those church registers were destroyed in a fire in > Dublin in 1922 where they had been archived. > > So it would be best for you to research the family's civil and church records in > the US to find their specific birth locations in County Leitrim. Records for > any Irish born family members would include their civil and church marriage and > death records, obituaries, cemetery records, tombstones, wills and US > naturalisation records. The Irish born children's civil and church birth, > baptism, marriage and death records are more sources for research. > > > > ****************** > Some County Leitrim websites: > http://www.connorsgenealogy.net/Leitrim/ > http://www.rootsweb.com/~irllet/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IRL-LEITRIM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message