George at GWGEHoyt@aol.com writes: << Towns are the villages where stores, churches, etc are (Keadue, Boyle, etc.) Townlands are the places where people lived---ie. their acreage where they farmed. >> George, Just a bit of clarification..... towns and townlands are not mutually exclusive. The townland is the basic unit of land measurement, standardized as such in the 1600's. They cover all of the land area of Ireland (even rivers and the smaller lakes are divided by townland boundaries). Villages, towns and even cities are composed of townlands. My townland map for Dublin county shows an amazing mish-mash of probably a hundred or so townlands underneath the urban chaos of Dublin City <gr>). .............................................................................. ... Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts