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Saturday, September 11, 2010

Griffith's Valuation and the Hanleys

Griffith's Valuation was a survey of Ireland completed in 1868 by Richard Griffith, British Commissioner of Valuation. Because there are no true Irish census prior to 1901, Griffith's Valuation is the closest we have to a census for Ireland in the 19th century. In County Limerick the survey was completed at the end of June in 1853.

In Griffith's Valuation the townland of Glensharrold in Co. Limerick lists twenty-nine households and among them was a household whose head was Mary Hanley. Without a doubt this Mary Hanley was a relative of mine and probably a direct ancestor. If I had to guess I would probably guess that this Mary Hanley was the mother or grandmother of Thomas Hanley, my great-grandfather.

In the description of the tenement, some included just a house, others house and land, and others house and bog. The tenement held by Mary Hanley was described as just a house. The immediate lessor, that is the actual owner of the land upon Mary's house sat was Thomas Carroll. Most of the land in Glensharrold was owned by Richard M. Yielding. Mary's house was valued at nine shillings.

Among Mary's neighbors in Glensharrold were a few Aherns that we have seen in the census for both 1901 and 1911. In addition, one of her neighbors was an Egan - Bryan Egan.  (Another one that misspelled their name!)

A copy of the original sheet from the valuation may be found here.



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