FREE Ireland Townland Genealogy Searches

Free Ireland Townland Genealogy Records Search

Uniquely Irish, a townland is the smallest official land division in Ireland.

• 1851 Ireland Townland DataBase
  Based on the 1851 Census of Ireland. This database lists all of the villages, towns and townlands that were enumerated, as well as the Barony, Civil Parish and Poor Law Union.
  
  
• Ireland Townland DataBase
  Mapped on Open Street Map
  
  
• 1901 Ireland Townland DataBase
  Based on the 1901 Census
  
  
• Northern Ireland Townland DataBase
  County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone.
  
  
• The IreAtlas Townland Database

  Field Name	Search Data	Sort By	Search Method
  Townland:			Must match EXACTLY ANYWHERE in field At END of field At BEGINNING of field
  County:	All Antrim Armagh Carlow Cavan Clare Cork Donegal Down Dublin Fermanagh Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny King's Co. Leitrim Limerick Londonderry Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Queen's Co. Roscommon Sligo Tipperary Tyrone Waterford Westmeath Wexford Wicklow
  Barony:			Must match EXACTLY ANYWHERE in field At END of field At BEGINNING of field
  Civil Parish:			Must match EXACTLY ANYWHERE in field At END of field At BEGINNING of field
  Poor Law Union:			Must match EXACTLY ANYWHERE in field At END of field At BEGINNING of field
  Province:	All Connaught Leinster Munster Ulster

Townland

A townland is the smallest official land division in Ireland. There are more than 60,000 townlands which vary in size from the smallest, less than two acres, to the largest, more than 7,000 acres. The better quality land was divided into smaller townlands.

Many records that genealogists use are divided by townlands. This includes records such as the census, tithe applotments, Griffith's Primary Valuation and more.

Knowing the townland where your ancestors lived may help set one family apart from others of the same surname. However, if you know the townland you must also know the parish, barony, and county, as there are many townlands of the same name throughout Ireland.

Civil Parish

Parishes are the next smallest land division in Ireland and are made up of several townlands. There are about 2,500 civil parishes in the country. Griffiths Valuation used the Civil Parish division. Civil parishes originally were the same as the Church of Ireland parishes but Church parish boundary may have changed after 1869 while civil parishes generally did not. The parishes of the Catholic Church in Ireland are generally unrelated to civil parishes.

Barony

Baronies are the next smallest land division and are an historical subdivision of a county. There were 331 baronies in Ireland, but the term is no longer in use. barony Map of 19th Century

County

County is the largest land division in Ireland. Ireland has 32 counties. After 1922, the six north-eastern counties became Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. The remaining 26 counties became the Republic of Ireland. Queen's County became County Laois and King's County became County Offaly. Derry and Londonderry are used interchangeably for the same county.

Poor Law Union

A system of Poor Law was introduced into Ireland in 1838 to oversee the workhouse system for paupers. Each Poor Law Union included several parishes. These same districts later became used as General Registrar's Districts within which births, deaths, and marriages were collected.

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