Routes taken by Tithe Collectors, Valuers and Census Takers

[murf]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before but I find it useful at times to compare names from census and census substitute listings for a particular townland to see what changes have occurred in between times.
I had occasion to do this recently for the townland of Doonsallagh in Kilmurry/Ibrickan Parish. In the Tithe Applotment listing Doonsallagh is a single entity, but in Griffiths Valuation it is split into Doonsallagh East and West. When I laid the two lists side by side they at first didn't seem to match, but then I reversed the order of the Griffiths listing and the match was readily apparent. Of course there were changes for various reasons, but the family names followed in much the same order. It makes sense that a tithe collector or valuer will follow the geography of a townland in visiting each of the properties in turn, so this sequence similarity is hardly surprising. A similar sequencing may be expected for the later censuses.
In making these comparisons one should be alert to changes in townland names and/or boundaries.
In the case of Doonsallagh, the townland may have been traversed in the reverse order, or it simply may have been listed that way.
This phenomenon can be useful in identifying which families have left due to death or emigration, property splitting or consolidation within families or providing a continuum of particular families from one census(substitute) to the next.

[pwaldron]

The same principle applies in towns - I noticed yesterday that Henry Street in Kilrush was apparently traversed in opposite directions by the census enumerators in 1901 and 1911.

[miriam scahill]

Very true, Paddy. Henry St. starts on the right side going from the Market Square on one Census and then on the left side in the other. It is necessary to find 'anchor residents' - e.g. Brews, Carmodys and Crottys. In the case of the Market Square - 1901 starts at what is now Crottys Pub & B & B - this was then 2 houses - and in 1911 it starts at junction at Moore St. - house No. 1 is shown as 'Ronghan - should be Roughan.