Irish Geneaography
  • Welcome
    • Menu
  • Ingredients
    • Carving up the Landscape - Genealogical Geography >
      • Irish Civil Geography >
        • Provinces & Counties
        • Townlands
      • Irish Poor Law Unions >
        • Irish Poor Law Records
      • Irish Civil Registration Districts
      • Irish Census Geography
    • Main Dishes - Irish Church & Civil Records >
      • Irish Roman Catholic Parishes & Registers
      • Church of Ireland Dioceses & Diocesan Records
      • Church of Ireland Parishes and Registers
      • Irish Will Probate Districts & Records, 1858+
      • Irish Civil Registration Records
      • Public Records in Ireland
    • Kitchen Garden - Irish Land Records >
      • 1798 Claimants & Surrenders
      • Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-1837 & Tithe Defaulters, 1831
      • Griffith's Valuation, 1847-1864
      • Valuation Revision Books, 1847-1864+
      • Return of Owners of Land, 1876
      • Landed Estates Court Rentals, 1850-1880
      • Registry of Deeds (Land Leases, Marriage Settlements & Wills)
      • Irish Land Commission
    • Irish Maps & Gazetteers
    • Historical Directories
    • Irish Newspapers
    • Rules? What rules? Placenames & Boundaries
    • What's That - Glossary and Acronyms >
      • Acronyms
  • Recipes
    • Local Specialities - County Specific Resources >
      • Connaught >
        • Co. Galway
        • Co. Leitrim
        • Co. Mayo
        • Co. Roscommon
        • Co. Sligo
      • Leinster >
        • Co. Carlow
        • Co. Dublin & City of Dublin
        • Co. Kildare
        • Co. Kilkenny
        • Co. Laois (Queens County)
        • Co. Longford
        • Co. Louth
        • Co. Meath
        • Co. Offaly (Kings County)
        • Co. Westmeath
        • Co. Wexford
        • Co. Wicklow
      • Munster >
        • Co. Clare
        • Co. Cork
        • Co. Kerry
        • Co. Limerick
        • Co. Tipperary
        • Co. Waterford
      • Ulster >
        • Co. Antrim
        • Co. Armagh
        • Co. Cavan
        • Co. Derry
        • Co. Donegal
        • Co. Down
        • Co. Fermanagh
        • Co. Monaghan
        • Co. Tyrone
      • Northern Ireland
    • Restaurants - Irish Archives & Libraries >
      • The Registry of Deeds >
        • The Registry of Deeds - History & Future
        • The Registry of Deeds - Visiting the Archive
        • The Registry of Deeds - Online Access
        • The Registry of Deeds - Finding Deeds
        • The Registry of Deeds - Deciphering and Citing a Deed
      • The National Library of Ireland
      • The Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland (formerly the Genealogical Office)
      • The National Archives of Ireland
      • Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland
      • Dublin City Library and Archives
      • Valuation Office
      • Representative Church Body Library
      • Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
    • Dining Clubs - Irish Societies & Journals
    • Chefs - Irish Genies
    • Foreign Fare - Finding the Irish Abroad >
      • American Pie - USA
      • Empire Builders - Canada
      • Down Under - Australia & New Zealand
      • Settling under the Saltire - Scotland >
        • Scottish History
        • Scottish Geography
        • Scottish Records & Resources
        • Scottish Research Bookshelf
        • Scottish Larder
        • Scottish Tuckbox
      • Fighting in a foreign field >
        • India
        • Europe, Middle East & Africa (WW1)
        • USA
    • Seasonings - Miscellaneous Sources >
      • Methodist Church in Ireland
      • Huguenots in Ireland
      • Medical Practitioners
      • Schoolchildren, Students, Clergy & Lawyers
      • Schoolbooks and Archive Notes
      • Irish Dog Licences
      • Customs & Excise Officers
    • Kitchen Techniques - Tips & Advice >
      • Wildcard Searching for Placenames
      • Search tips for Scotland's People
      • Searching Scottish Parishes on Scotland's People
      • Searching the NAI Testamentary Index
      • Searching the Inland Revenue Testamentary Indexes
      • Using the Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer
  • Cookbooks
    • Free Websites
    • Subscription / PPV Websites
    • Research Advice - Websites & Finding Aids
    • Research Advice - Talks & Videos
    • Blogs, Magazines & Forums
    • Bookshelves >
      • Guides & Finding Aids
      • Histories
      • Digital Libraries
      • Bookmarks
  • Links
    • Snacks
    • Store Cupboard
    • Midnight Feasts >
      • Hunting for Irish Births
      • Hunting for Irish Baptisms
      • Hunting for Irish Marriages
      • Hunting for Irish Deaths
      • Hunting for Irish Burials
      • Hunting for Irish Monumental Inscriptions
      • Hunting for Irish Wills
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Irish Land Commission
​

Picture(Click to access document)
Don't get too excited, as I'm afraid that the Irish Land Commission, set up in 1881 and tasked with redistributing land right up until its dissolution in the 1990's, is not giving up its treasure any time soon.  Their records, which by all accounts are a veritable gold mine of genealogical information, are now held in custody in a warehouse in Portlaiose by the Irish Department of Agriculture.  By all accounts, they are regarded as "private property", not records of State.

John Grenham waxed lyrical about the situation in his blog piece "Land Commission's Forbidden Fruit" - follow up the link to the Irish Government's brisk 2012 response to efforts to gain access.   He also blogged recently about one lucky researcher's success in gaining access and the resulting book - "The Lost Gaeltacht".  Fiona Fitzsimmons made the case for more access in this History Ireland "Irish Land Commission" article 6 years ago. 

However, late in 2021 there was a surprising announcement that moves were afoot to consider at least digitising the findings aids.  The Irish Times carried a couple of stories, including a short video (see my blog post.)  The budgets being talked about are tiny and the timescales glacial and as for any similar plans for the actual records themselves - who knows?  Not in this lifetime or the next, predicts an animated John Grenham!  There are not even any firm promises to put the digitised finding aids online.  Mind you, imagine knowing that there were more detailed records available and not a hope of accessing them!


Curiously though, pre-1923 records for the Northern Irish Ulster counties were transferred to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and they have had no problems making them publicly available (no specific web page - you have to search their e-catalogue with the phrase "Land Commission" to find the 2000+ references.)

​So, good news if you have land-owning ancestors in Ulster but bad news if they were in the Republic, like mine.

The document you can access for free by clicking the image above is a bit of a dense read but gives you a flavour of how this institution sought to bring some order to proceedings.  It also gives lots of clues as to the myriad of documents that might be produced in the course of executing land transactions according to their rules.


(c) Irish Geneaography - 2021
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.