1857 Griffith's Valuation of Co Donegal
This page forms part of the Donegal Genealogy Resources Website
You may link to this page but not copy it. If you do want to link to it, Contact Me so we can exchange links.
This page has come about because I, and probably quite a few of you, can't get to State or National Libraries/Archives or LDS Family History Centres without a lot of fuss - those of us with young children, or who have transport or mobility problems often have to rely on friends or strangers to help us out. The best option is to be able to access the information we need through the Internet, but there has not been much available - so I've started collecting Griffith's lists and bit by bit, I'm adding them to this site. I've been using MS Excel, which allows me to enter the data in any order, then to sort by Surname, and finally, build a webpage with a table displaying all the information.
I would especially like to thank Sylvia, Judy, Tom, Anne and Mike who have provided me with some of the following documents - THANKYOU!
Well, that was about 5 years ago I wrote that....the Griffith's for Donegal is now complete! Below you will find an index sorted by surname, if you don't know which parish your ancestor came from, as well as individual indexes for each parish (if you do!)
Last Update to this page 20 Jan 2008
What the 1857 Griffith's Valuation is!
This valuation records every landowner and householder in Ireland in a period shortly after the famine. An Act was passed in 1826 allowed for a uniform valuation of property in all Ireland for levying of county charges and grand Jury Rates. Thus began an assessment of the whole country, county by county by Sir Richard Griffith. Amendments were passed to the 1826 Act, the first in 1831 excluded those houses under the annual valuation of £3, another in 1836 excluded house under £5.
The information given in the Griffith's gives: the Townlands address and householders name; the name of the person from whom the property is leased; a description of the property; the acreage and the valuation. If a surname was common in an area then the surveyors adopted the practice of indicating the fathers name to show the difference between two people of the same Christian name and surname (usually). So Tadgh O'Brien (Michael) is the son of Michael O'Brien and Tadgh O'Brien (James) is the son of James O'Brien. However, here in Ireland people of the same name could/can be distinguished simply by indicating the colour of their hair (as gaeilge - thru Irish ) so it would have been sufficient here to indicate that one Tadgh had red hair and one Tadgh black - calling them respectively Tadgh (Red) O'Brien and Tadgh (Black) O'Brien.
The main difference between the Tithe Applotment Books and the Griffith's Valuation is that all householders were listed in Griffith's.
Remember the different types of acres used in each, the Irish and English acre...this will account for difference in size of land held by a family from one valuation to the other if they appear in both. Remember also the fact that the house of less than £3 annual value were included up to the year 1831 and excluded from that point forward, and those with an annual value of £5 were included up to 1836 and excluded from then on.
(The above text was provided by Jane O'Brien and reproduced here with her permission)
Online Indexes to the 1857 Griffith's Valuation
County Indexes:
Parish Indexes:
Town Indexes:
Town of Pettigo - a large file but worth the wait. Peter Dolan has transcribed the data and put it in a table so it looks exactly like the original document.
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