Irish Land Commission talks
I’ll be delivering two talks next week both on the same subject of Irish Land Commission records. This is a greatly under-used resource that can provide us with a great deal of interesting and useful information about our ancestors who sold their land or bought their farms under the various Irish Land Acts.
Although the records for the Republic of Ireland are not accessible by the public, Northern Ireland’s records are freely available at the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast.
The talk will cover the background to the Irish Land War that precipitated the Land Acts . These Acts initiated the reform in land ownership throughout Ireland. The outcome of the Acts means that the majority of small farmers own their property outright unlike in England, Scotland and Wales.
The talk will include the types of records you can find in this archive and how to go about searching for them. Many of the Irish Land Commission records in PRONI are not indexed but are held in bundles within boxes, which means that the records are not found in a typical catalogue search.
Date and location of talks
The first talk is for the Causeway Coast and Glens branch of the North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS) on Tuesday 28 March 2023 in Coleraine at 8.00pm.
The second talk is on Thursday 30 March 2023 in The Braid, Ballymena for the Ballymena Branch of NIFHS at 7.15pm.
Where to find further information
For further information and contact details for the branches please see the NIFHS website at https://www.nifhs.org/
About the author
Natalie Bodle, a native of Northern Ireland is the author of the Roots Blog and founder of Roots Revealed. She is a professionally qualified genealogist and is a member of APG and of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. She is also a qualified tour guide and a member of TGNI. Roots Revealed provides genealogy research services to clients who are searching for their Irish, Northern Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors, in addition to bespoke genealogy tours and family history courses and talks. For more information about the full range of services provided by Roots Revealed, please visit www.rootsrevealed.co.uk or get in touch by emailing enquiries@rootsrevealed.co.uk Her first book Tracing your family history using Irish newspapers and other printed material was published by Pen and Sword in February 2024. You can purchase a copy of the book here.
