LandedEstates is a free Irish database of landed estates and historic houses in Connacht and Munster, circa 1700-1914. 

The site went offline last fall after a cyber attack on its host, the University of Galway, but it's now back in operation. We've blogged about this great resource before, and now it's looking better than ever. Check it out here.

By the way, did you know you could quickly search all (1775, as of today) IGSI blog entries? In the block at the top left of this page, choose 'Blog Title' or 'Title & Text' in the Search drop-down menu and enter whatever subject you seek. Voila! All the postings about that topic going back to July 2011! One can also sort by Category or Timeframe.

Here are two tidbits about landed estates:

My husband's Hickey ancestors came from Cahernahallia, in county Tipperary. Although the Hickeys had left Ireland before Griffiths' Valuation, the owner of Cahernahallia at the time of the valuation was Viscount Lismore. (His original family name was O'Callaghan.) In the 1870s Viscount Lismore owned 34,945 acres in county Tipperary, 6,067 acres in county Cork and 1,194 acres in county Limerick. The NUI landed estates website provides summary information about the estate and directs researchers to archival sources. A fascinating site!

"Repositories"  was the theme of the October 2013 issue of The Septs. As always, the journal included several interesting articles, e.g., Fiona Fitzsimons' report on "Irish Family History - Research Online." She gave tips about "Landed Estate Court Rentals," which some professional genealogists call " the 'secret-hero' of Irish genealogy." ...The key to finding President Obama's Irish ancestors was found in the Landed Estate Court Rentals! The "Rentals" are actually sales brochures for properties owned by bankrupt estates which were being sold by the government after the Famine.  Again, sometimes these estate records list tenants and the terms of their leases, which is what identified critical relationships in the Obama ancestral family.