Where Was That and What Happened Then?

The Key to Your Success – Understanding the Civil Structure and History

To know where to look for records, you first need to understand 
- civil divisions of Ireland – therefore where to look for records - overview of Irish history – what was going on that made your ancestors want to leave home

1. Civil divisions - http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/guide/land-div.html
   • Components (each category divides into the increasingly smaller subdivisions below it)
     • Provinces (4)
       • Counties (32)
       • Civil Parishes – not church parishes
       • Townlands (a surveyed piece of land - not a Town)
       • Townland sub-denominations
     • Administrative Units (often cross boundaries)
       • Poor Law Unions, contain Superintendent Registrar's Districts
       • Baronies
       • Estates
   • Finding Them in Maps & Gazetteers & Online
     • Print
       • A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland, 2nd Edition, Brian Mitchell
       • General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland. 1851 (also online below)
       • Topographical Dictionary of Ireland: 1837 –FTM CD 270
       • Ordnance Survey Maps – Discovery series (IGSI Bookstore)
     • Online
       • General Alphabetical Index…(above) is also online athttp://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/placenames/index.cfm
       • The IreAtlas Townland database: http://www.seanruad.com
       • Irish Ancestors:http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/placenames/index.cfm
         • - Place names – a free listing
         • - Write-up from Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of 1837 – a paid listing.
2. Irish History
   1. These things you need to understand:
      • Ireland at the time your ancestors left because history affects the records –
        - what was recorded - who recorded it - why it was recorded - what survives, and - where it can be found;
      • Different groups emigrated at different times - History tells us who and why;
      • Being “Irish” means being from the island of Ireland; with Celtic-Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Anglo-Irish heritage; and different people with Protestant and Catholic religious beliefs (with some crossover).
   2. Migration from Ireland to America – 18th Century
      • 1717 Scottish settlers leave Ulster – poor harvest and rackrents
      • 1740-1741 Potato Famine - all Ireland except Connacht
      • 1760’s Agrarian violence – Ulster
      • 1771-1775 Decline in Belfast linen trade – 10,000 left each year, 1/3 to 1/2 of them Ulster Protestants
      • By 1790 1/6 of 3 million “U.S.” were of Irish birth or descent.
      • 280,000 were Ulster Protestants, 106,000 native Irish Catholics, 61,000 Descendants of Irish Catholics from Ulster and English settlers from Ulster and the South
   3. Migration from Ireland to America – 19th Century
      • 1815 Immigration and trade resume
      • 1815-1845 Many more Catholics & from South (could be double considering those who went to Canada first.)
      • 1815-1825: 28,600
      • 1826-1835: 118,4000
      • 1836-1845: 289,700
      • 1846-1855 1,442,000 (300,000 to Canada)
      • 1856-1865 582,400
      • 1866-1875 645,700
      • 500,000 left Ireland every 10 years until WWI