A Guide to the 18th century Land Records in the Irish Registry of Deeds

The Registry of Deeds in Dublin contains a vast repository of summaries of Irish land transactions for the 18th century. This collection is particularly important, to genealogists among others, because of the destruction of other historical records in Ireland for the same period, especially since the Four Courts fire of 1922. In this guide you will find a description of the records held there, an explanation of the different Irish land and currency units used, and a wide ranging discussion of Irish land transactions and registries of the period and somewhat later. This includes the influence of the Penal Laws, the nature of Irish marriage settlements and the economic climate and prices prevailing in Ireland in that century. Chapter 8 consists of a detailed case study that traces the history of an Irish family, the Nugent branch of Ballina Co. Meath, in order to illustrate the value of the information in the Registry of Deeds.