I am working my way through my direct ancestors and their siblings where possible, and having felt like I have for the most part exhausted the Griffith's valuation ones (a future post), I have recently placed focus on Freeholder lists in Ireland.
The challenge with family research in Ireland is the lack of records that survive pre-Civil registration. When I have helped friends and DNA cousins with their family trees, I have always felt somewhat envious when their ancestral roots are firmly in England or Germany, for example, in effect countries that have records that go back enough generations to keep one occupied in frustration-free research for ages!
Ah, how different it is in Ireland. The great positives are much of the research available for Ireland online is free. The Irish diaspora is broad and engaged in naming and preserving family histories, I am constantly amazed by the kindness of strangers that will help with tracking down local records.
The Irish Freeholder lists date from the late 1700s into the early 1820s. I am currently working through the ones offered on PRONI. This does of course require one to know ancestral places/names that go back to at least the early 1800s to have relevance. I know of a few of my family lines that were farmers, and made the list.
Deciphering them, what are they good for?
IrelandXO offers more detailed explanation, but pulling a bit from their site to answer this question.
A freehold could be held (a) "in fee" meaning outright ownership, or (b) as a lease for an indefinite period of a life or a number of lives (e.g. three lives, roughly 31 years each)...
...By the 19th century, the class of holding was only important for political elections. A person with a freehold of sufficient value, depending on the law at the time, could register to vote.
...Freeholders' Lists aka Jury Lists were arranged by county and drawn up regularly in Ireland since 1727. They recorded any man whose freehold value (according to the law at that time) qualified him to vote in elections.
...Between 1793–1829 poorer Catholic and Protestant freeholders (with an annual rent of at least 40 shillings) were equally eligible to vote. These freeholder lists are of particular interest for Irish genealogy research because they represent a significant percentage of the population. Freeholder lists can be a valuable census substitute for early 19th-century Ireland
And how to interpret them varies. Some list only the name of the freeholder (and those who owned the leases) along with the location, while others include up to 3 names of 31 years each (living people). The ones with 3 names on them can give you an indication of possible siblings, sons, close family.
Depicted below is one of the finds I have come across so far by using the PRONI records.Here is the link to get started with the collection documented in PRONI.
this one is from 1817 and you can see the amount of detail (particularly valuable because of the 3 lives listed)
