One of the most important resources for 19th-century Irish genealogy is Griffith’s Valuation, a property tax survey carried out between 1848 and 1864. Also known as the Primary Valuation of Ireland, it’s a partial substitute for the loss of most 1800s Irish census records. Griffith’s Valuation lists only those who owned or leased land, so it’s like a head-of-household census—but it covers about 80 percent of the population and every parish, including more than 1 million dwellings.

 

You can access Griffith’s Valuation for free on the website Ask About Ireland, a cooperative effort among public libraries, local museums and archives to digitize Irish cultural resources. Follow these six steps to find your Irish ancestral roots in its pages: