Free Griffith's Valuation site temporarily out of action

Claire Santry's Irish Genealogy News blog is reporting that the free access to Griffith's Valuation at Ask About Ireland (www.askaboutireland.ie) is out of action for a few weeks as a maintenance upgrade is performed. The full story is at http://irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/free-griffiths-valuation-site-is-out-of.html.

The primary valuation of land in Ireland, carried out from 1847-1864, is essential for Irish genealogy research, but is thankfully also available on other sites. I personally find that FindmyPast (www.findmypast.ie) provides the best alternative access as it will search for name variants - but this is still a blow, most notably for the maps access on the Ask About Ireland site which can help you to pinpoint exactly where an ancestor's property was located on marked up colour editions of the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of Ireland. Black and white versions of these maps used to be on The Genealogist website (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) at one point, alongside its offering for the Valuation (located in the British and International Records section), but I can't seem to find these at present. Similarly the map links accompanying Ancestry's valuation offerings (http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1269&o_iid=52300&o_lid=52300&o_sch=Inbound) are also now returning a "We're sorry, this page is no longer available" notice.

Don't forget that the revision books for Northern Ireland, which commenced immediately after the primary valuation, are free to access on PRONI's site at http://applications.proni.gov.uk/dcal_proni_val12b/Search.aspx though cannot be searched by a landholder's name, only by browsing the books for the relevant townlands or streets. In most cases, the first year of the valuation revision will have changed little from the primary valuation, but you get the bonus of knowing when the property changed hands by tracing the same property over several volumes.

(With thanks to Claire Santry)

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/.