I have been working on some fiendishly entangled Hopkins families that called the parish of Clonegal home in the early 19th century, and as part of this research was following up some later records in the Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1922.  If you want to know more about these records, then check out my page on Will Probate Districts & Records, 1858+. 

Now, we've all seen images of original documents that are festooned with various mysterious marks as enumerators marked up household returns perhaps or Griffith's field agents doodled in their field books.  Often, we get annoyed as something important may have been obscured or made indistinct.  Not so fast, I say, sometimes those extraneous scribblings might just help you.  Let me illustrate with the examples I found recently in those Will Calendars.

Sarah Jane Hopkins had been living with her widowed elder sister, Susan, when she died in 1914.  Susan had lost her husband, William Stevenson, 6 years previously.  Both William and Sarah had left wills that were proved in the Principal Registry in Dublin.  Here are the calendar entries for both of them.

Can you make out those pencilled numbers preceded by a "T" under their names (Click on the images to enlarge)? 
​If you've already perused my page of guidance on post 1858 wills referenced in green above, you will know that this code refers to a catalogue entry in the Testamentary series at the National Archives of Ireland.  This means that there should be a copy of the will lodged with them.  Sure enough, when I consulted the Index to Testamentary Records in the Public Record Office, Dublin, 15th-20th Century online, I found the following cards for each of these wills (click to enlarge.)

I then followed my own (excellent!) advice and consulted Testamentary Documents in the Public Record office, Dublin to see if there was an online image for either of them.  Sadly, those T reference numbers were not on the list for the various microfilms available online for this resource.  But if I desperately wanted to see those wills, I ought to be able to contact the National Archives of Ireland and request a copy.

Perhaps I just got lucky with these 2 calendar entries, but you never know what might turn up in your own research.  So, if you think you can detect a pencilled entry in the Will Calendars that look like these codes, then be sure to follow it up.

​Let me know if you get lucky!

If Irish geography is not your strong point, Logainm.ie is a great free resource for tracking down unfamiliar place names (see my Townlands page for more information.)

However, it is only the modern spelling of the name that is indexed for searching.  The problem is spellings have never been consistent over the years and there have even been complete name changes between English and Irish variants just confuse us all even more - Parsontown - Birr, I'm looking at you!  


​Older spellings or name variants were on the site but you had to click through on to another page ("Historical References") for each place name you thought might be relevant to see if you could find what you were looking for. 

I suggested to the Irish Government department that runs the website that it would be great if these older variants were also searchable, which they agreed was a good idea.  The site has recently been upgraded and whilst my suggestion has not exactly made it into this latest version, there have been some great improvements.  I have also been able to work out a way of trying to overcome that issue of hunting with alternative spellings.  Read on...

The historical references have now been placed on the landing page for each modern place name, so you can see straight away when a different spelling may have been in use.  Enlarge the screen shot to the right and you will see what I mean. 

There are also reference codes on the live pages (not active in this image) that tell you exactly where and when that variant was found to be in use.  Click on these to expand the reference and open up new avenues of research. Try cutting and pasting the names of any of those documents into your favourite search engine and you never know what you might find online to keep you well and truly diverted on a rainy afternoon!  
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Also prominently displayed on this page are the map co-ordinates for the place.  Cut and paste these into the relevant field in your favoured family history program and you will have mapped the place quickly and correctly, without having to zoom around a sometimes unhelpful modern map that may struggle with Irish townlands.

So, here's my new searching hack... by the power of Google (other search engines are available)!  Let me explain by way of the example townland in the images above.  Some months ago, after much painstaking searching and comparing of old and new maps and eventually landing on the right page on the previous version of Logainm, I had satisfied myself that an 18th century land deed reference to a Co. Wicklow townland called Ballykeroge was in fact referring to modern day Ballyherrig - check the second image above for even more spellings.  But how would I have been able to find that out much more easily with the new version of the site?

Because the spelling variants are now on the landing page, search engines will find them.  I tried this out by putting "Logainm Ballykeroge Wicklow" into the search bar and lo and behold this is what popped up as the first result!
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So, if you're struggling to find a place named in an old document, specifically direct your search to this new updated website with that first search term (Logainm), followed by your place name and ideally a county name (remember there are lots of common place names used across Ireland.)  You might not get as first time lucky as I did, but with a bit of experimentation and patience, you might just solve one of those infuriating place puzzles that might be stymieing your research.

Let me know if this works for you or if you come up with other clever tips for making the most of this great resource.