Irish Maps & Gazetteers
I love maps. Whilst this website grew from wanting to organise my Irish genealogical bookmarks, I actually hankered an ambition to create a whole new way of finding evidence by using maps to explore instead of filling in endless boxes. However, as this idea is currently beyond my programming skills, I hunt online for old maps to answers questions and pose new ones.
Kilkenny Streets - Image by Wiggy
For example, street names have a habit of changing, so try Dublin Street Names to help you find new names for long lost lanes in Dublin and then locate them on this map - Dublin 1798. The same is true of many other places and I will continue to look out for good resources.
Incidentally, this composite of lovely old street signs comes from a trip I made to Kilkenny a few years ago. Parliament St. was once called Coal Market, where my Empson ancestors lived and traded and Evans is another family name. Clues everywhere! Butter Slip? No doubt an historic reference to the manufacture of dairy products but it just made me laugh...! You can find some of these streets on this 1780 Kilkenny City Map which I found on Wikipedia - always worth just having a general hunt around to see what turns up.
Incidentally, this composite of lovely old street signs comes from a trip I made to Kilkenny a few years ago. Parliament St. was once called Coal Market, where my Empson ancestors lived and traded and Evans is another family name. Clues everywhere! Butter Slip? No doubt an historic reference to the manufacture of dairy products but it just made me laugh...! You can find some of these streets on this 1780 Kilkenny City Map which I found on Wikipedia - always worth just having a general hunt around to see what turns up.
William Petty's Map of Ireland
What maps exist for Ireland?
Ireland has been mapped at many times in its long history but it is probably the surviving maps from the 17th century onwards that are going to prove most useful to most genealogists.
The 1641 rebellion in Ireland in which the Catholic Irish rose up in fear of threats from both Scottish Covenanters and Cromwellian Puritans, kicked off some fairly extensive recording and mapping of Irish land assets in order to exact retribution. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 sought to establish in written form who owned what lands and most crucially, what their religious persuasion and hence affiliation was.
William Petty, surgeon-general to the English army was then tasked with producing maps of the lands to be seized from the Catholic Irish and redistributed to Protestant cronies and badly paid soldiers. Note, not all lands were confiscated - some were already in the hands of Protestant families and others were deemed too unproductive to be worth seizing. The results of these endeavours became known as The Down Survey of Ireland and the website is worth comprehensively exploring as there is lots of information including maps at multiple levels (county, barony & parish) and also informative historical context.
There are also a couple of searchable databases of landholders comparing 1640 and 1670, the link to which is somewhat hidden amongst a lot of technical gobbledegook under the Historical GIS tab.
Data and maps, sadly, do no survive for all counties so check the coverage carefully. Where they do survive, take some time to just roam over the maps, noting the different spellings attributed to townlands, parishes and baronies, as you might get some inspiration for searching other records. As you might expect, major houses and estates are prominently marked and may help you find locations that have long since disappeared or merged into the landscape.
Further lands were forfeited by James II's supporters following the Williamite wars in Ireland in the closing decade of the 17th century but as yet I haven't found any maps to illustrate these events.
Ireland has been mapped at many times in its long history but it is probably the surviving maps from the 17th century onwards that are going to prove most useful to most genealogists.
The 1641 rebellion in Ireland in which the Catholic Irish rose up in fear of threats from both Scottish Covenanters and Cromwellian Puritans, kicked off some fairly extensive recording and mapping of Irish land assets in order to exact retribution. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 sought to establish in written form who owned what lands and most crucially, what their religious persuasion and hence affiliation was.
William Petty, surgeon-general to the English army was then tasked with producing maps of the lands to be seized from the Catholic Irish and redistributed to Protestant cronies and badly paid soldiers. Note, not all lands were confiscated - some were already in the hands of Protestant families and others were deemed too unproductive to be worth seizing. The results of these endeavours became known as The Down Survey of Ireland and the website is worth comprehensively exploring as there is lots of information including maps at multiple levels (county, barony & parish) and also informative historical context.
There are also a couple of searchable databases of landholders comparing 1640 and 1670, the link to which is somewhat hidden amongst a lot of technical gobbledegook under the Historical GIS tab.
Data and maps, sadly, do no survive for all counties so check the coverage carefully. Where they do survive, take some time to just roam over the maps, noting the different spellings attributed to townlands, parishes and baronies, as you might get some inspiration for searching other records. As you might expect, major houses and estates are prominently marked and may help you find locations that have long since disappeared or merged into the landscape.
Further lands were forfeited by James II's supporters following the Williamite wars in Ireland in the closing decade of the 17th century but as yet I haven't found any maps to illustrate these events.
Part of John Rocque's 1756 map of Dublin
The 18th century saw a proliferation of maps from those whom I shall dub the "gentleman cartographers", in that you will probably find the maps referred to by their names e.g.
- John Roque's maps of Dublin (1750s-1780's)
- Jacob Neville's map of Wicklow (1760) *** I would love to find a copy of this online ***
- Taylor and Skinner's road maps of Ireland (1778)
The 19th century ushered in the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1824 and their maps were employed as important reference material in some of the major Irish land surveys and transactions in later years e.g.
- Griffith's Valuation (1840's-1860's)
- Landed Estates Court Rentals / Encumbered Estates (1860's)
Where can you find map resources online?
The following sites all have good free to access map resources, although several are not explicitly geared towards the needs of family historians and you may need to wrestle a bit with their functionality to get to what you need. However, believe me, this will be time well spent when you solve a particularly vexing people puzzle by spotting an obscure old reference to a place long since renamed as I did recently (Seapark in Co. Wicklow since you ask.)
The following sites all have good free to access map resources, although several are not explicitly geared towards the needs of family historians and you may need to wrestle a bit with their functionality to get to what you need. However, believe me, this will be time well spent when you solve a particularly vexing people puzzle by spotting an obscure old reference to a place long since renamed as I did recently (Seapark in Co. Wicklow since you ask.)
University College Dublin Map Collections
Maps are an important part of academic research and this website highlights cartographical services available from the UCD library. However, buried within its pages and easily accessible via the links in the grey box at the top of the page are a feast of links to historical maps of Ireland that you will find very useful for family history;
Historic Maps of All Ireland Lots of great images to access plus some advice on using the Geohive interface to OSI Historical maps (see also below)
Historic Maps by County Not all counties represented but good selection with something for most of them
Historic Maps of Dublin Map catalogue ranges from 1610 to 1939
UCD OSI Maps of Towns 19th century historical maps of principal towns organised by county.
The Maps and GIS Librarian has also provided a link to a great presentation called "Free website sources for historical maps of Ireland". It's a very practical guide, probably written to guide students and academics. Settle in for a good long read and you will gleefully find yourself spending a whole afternoon like me running off to the sites highlighted. In particular look out for those maps that are described as georeferenced, which means that the historical maps have been "pinned" to a modern map and you can use a slider to see through one to the other. This is a really good feature for trying to locate places that might have been swallowed up by urban growth, were known by another name long ago or have disappeared altogether.
Maps are an important part of academic research and this website highlights cartographical services available from the UCD library. However, buried within its pages and easily accessible via the links in the grey box at the top of the page are a feast of links to historical maps of Ireland that you will find very useful for family history;
Historic Maps of All Ireland Lots of great images to access plus some advice on using the Geohive interface to OSI Historical maps (see also below)
Historic Maps by County Not all counties represented but good selection with something for most of them
Historic Maps of Dublin Map catalogue ranges from 1610 to 1939
UCD OSI Maps of Towns 19th century historical maps of principal towns organised by county.
The Maps and GIS Librarian has also provided a link to a great presentation called "Free website sources for historical maps of Ireland". It's a very practical guide, probably written to guide students and academics. Settle in for a good long read and you will gleefully find yourself spending a whole afternoon like me running off to the sites highlighted. In particular look out for those maps that are described as georeferenced, which means that the historical maps have been "pinned" to a modern map and you can use a slider to see through one to the other. This is a really good feature for trying to locate places that might have been swallowed up by urban growth, were known by another name long ago or have disappeared altogether.
Ordnance Survey Ireland
This very modern site is designed to showcase the many digital mapping resources that this organisation can offer businesses. However, buried very deep within its pages are some historical maps that allow you to roam around Victorian Ireland.
You have to access these via their Geohive map viewer which I recommend you have a bit of a play around with to get used to. The UCD All Ireland maps link above gives you good instructions too but basically you need to;
This very modern site is designed to showcase the many digital mapping resources that this organisation can offer businesses. However, buried very deep within its pages are some historical maps that allow you to roam around Victorian Ireland.
You have to access these via their Geohive map viewer which I recommend you have a bit of a play around with to get used to. The UCD All Ireland maps link above gives you good instructions too but basically you need to;
- Click the cross next to the "Base Information and Mapping" option in box in the left hand top corner
- Scroll down the list until you see the options prefaced "Historic".
- Choose one and enter your place name in the search box - it will tell you if it can't find the place, so you might need to think laterally. If you can, put in a fairly large recognisable town near the place you want to view and move the map around until you find the right spot.
A more recent find were the maps compiled under open source by OpenStreetMap for Ireland. This used to have a great way of accessing historic maps and a wonderfully simple tool that allowed you to switch on various layers e.g. townlands, parishes etc and have these clearly displayed over modern road maps. Sadly, this has gone in its latest guise - see more information at the bottom of my Townlands page for what it can show you now.
The Royal Academy of Ireland (RIA) has published a series of historical maps in its Irish Historic Towns Atlas.
There are currently 28 available online and these have been grouped into collections relating to their common origins e.g. Viking, Anglo-Norman etc. (see the thumbnails at the foot of their page.)
There are a range of maps and supporting material available for each, but be aware that these resources were primarily created as print products (which you can buy via their shop of course) and so, because of copyright restrictions, not all the printed material is made available online for free.
There is also a reference book that has been written to help you interpret the maps, sections of which are hyperlinked from the online home page, so be sure to read these before diving into the maps. The rest of the RIA site is also awash with information and essays, so worth exploring.
Another lovely publication replete with maps available from the RIA is "John Roque's Dublin - A Guide to the Georgian City", which you can find out more about on my Bookshelves - Histories page.
There are currently 28 available online and these have been grouped into collections relating to their common origins e.g. Viking, Anglo-Norman etc. (see the thumbnails at the foot of their page.)
There are a range of maps and supporting material available for each, but be aware that these resources were primarily created as print products (which you can buy via their shop of course) and so, because of copyright restrictions, not all the printed material is made available online for free.
There is also a reference book that has been written to help you interpret the maps, sections of which are hyperlinked from the online home page, so be sure to read these before diving into the maps. The rest of the RIA site is also awash with information and essays, so worth exploring.
Another lovely publication replete with maps available from the RIA is "John Roque's Dublin - A Guide to the Georgian City", which you can find out more about on my Bookshelves - Histories page.
One particular resource that is a goldmine of geographical information is Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837. Original images of both volumes of this work plus a beautiful atlas of county maps are all available FREE to browse and download from the AskAboutIreland website - just click on the named link above. Some better resolution versions of these maps are also available via FamilySearch's wiki page but for some reason not all of the maps are labelled clearly nor accessible - have a play and get lucky. There is also the facility to search a transcript of this resource via the LibraryIreland site if you prefer but there are no maps on this site. Finally, be sure to check out the list of subscribers in the introductory pages as the great and good of Ireland (and selected diaspora) signed up to pledge funds and receive copies - I've found a few relatives in this list and also some good clues as to contemporary addresses.
Samuel Lewis must have inspired the powers that be to get a grip on all things topographical as a few years later along comes the official Government versions. The actual titles are a bit more Victorian verbose than these snappy links as you will see from the opening pages of the volumes I could find online. If you're prepared to settle in for a good read or hunt selectively within their pages, you may learn lots of wonderful facts to slay the pub quiz tournament or more importantly, track down an elusive ancestor's location;
Samuel Lewis must have inspired the powers that be to get a grip on all things topographical as a few years later along comes the official Government versions. The actual titles are a bit more Victorian verbose than these snappy links as you will see from the opening pages of the volumes I could find online. If you're prepared to settle in for a good read or hunt selectively within their pages, you may learn lots of wonderful facts to slay the pub quiz tournament or more importantly, track down an elusive ancestor's location;
Here are a few more miscellaneous map resources I've found elsewhere online, with Dublin well represented - have a good browse.
Historic Maps of Dublin Several different Victorian versions of the city, plus street indexes to some (Shane Wilson's site)
Dublin Historic Maps Good coloured maps showing administrative boundaries plus historical maps all shown as overlays on modern map
John Speed's Map of Dublin This is a beautiful little map, showing all the major churches and buildings in 1610
Free Maps of Ireland Eclectic mix of historical and statistical maps
Historic Maps of Ireland Small selection of antique maps (Shane Wilson's site)
NI Townland Maps Searchable database of Northern Ireland Townlands with results displayed on a map
Historic Maps of Dublin Several different Victorian versions of the city, plus street indexes to some (Shane Wilson's site)
Dublin Historic Maps Good coloured maps showing administrative boundaries plus historical maps all shown as overlays on modern map
John Speed's Map of Dublin This is a beautiful little map, showing all the major churches and buildings in 1610
Free Maps of Ireland Eclectic mix of historical and statistical maps
Historic Maps of Ireland Small selection of antique maps (Shane Wilson's site)
NI Townland Maps Searchable database of Northern Ireland Townlands with results displayed on a map
(c) Irish Geneaography - 13 OCT 2020
