One of our brick walls is to trace our James KERR family line from Quebec back to a specific place in Ireland.
A tool that may help greatly is Griffith’s Valuation, a property ownership survey in Ireland from 1848 to 1864. This survey became known as “Griffith’s” Valuation after Sir Richard Griffith, who was director of Ireland’s Valuation office at the time. The information collected was used to determine the amount of tax each person would pay to support the poor.
One can search by both surname and placename, plus access a scan of the original document page and link to maps with the tenement numbers and lot boundaries clearly indicated. The maps are linked to modern highway maps and satellite imagery.
This record is perhaps the only detailed record of where in Ireland people lived during that time period and what property they owned. These records link the individual to a specific townland or parish and may lead to parish records of births and marriages. Click here for access: Griffith’s Valuation