Wills 1858 - 1900

Genealogy, Archaeology, History, Heritage & Folklore

Moderators: Clare Support, Clare Past Mod

Post Reply
Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Wills 1858 - 1900

Post by Sduddy » Wed Oct 26, 2016 2:21 pm

The National Archives of Ireland have made Wills 1858 - 1890 available online http://census.nationalarchives.ie/search/wr/home.jsp.

I was surprised to see that so few wills were made during that period, but it is a good resource. Entering the surname, alone, will bring up all mentions of that surname – even in wills made by other people. I entered “McNamara” and got 263 results. When I add “Clare” under “Location” the results are reduced to 42, but doing this loses the wills of those will-makers who did not include “Clare” in their addresses. Any variation of the name, i.e. MacNamara, brings another set of results.

Honor McNamara, of Moyrbee [Moyrhee], Clare, made a will in 1874 leaving everything to Mary Hekir [Hehir].
Honor MacNamara is listed in Landowners of Clare 1876, http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... /landm.htm, and must have been the daughter of Joan McNamara who, according to Griffith’s Valuation, had 3 acres, 1 rood and 10 perches of land in Moyree Commons and a house with a rateable valuation of 5 shillings. It seems very little, but, unlike the farmers around, who were all tenants, she owned her piece of land freehold and could dispose of it as she pleased. Commons in Ireland was different from commonage in England. In Ireland all those who shared the commons knew exactly which part of it was theirs.

Sheila

Post Reply