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Indexes to Griffith's Valuation and Tithe Books
In the early 1960s, the National Library undertook a project to index the surnames occurring in Griffith's Valuation and the Tithe Books, which produced the county by county series known as the "Index of Surnames" or "Householders Index". This records the occurrence of households of a particular surname in each of the civil parishes of a county, giving the exact number of households in the case of Griffith's, as well as providing a summary of the total numbers in each barony of the county. Since it is not a true index, providing only an indication of the presence or absence of a surname in the Tithe Books, and the numbers of the surname in Griffith's, its usefulness is limited. For names which are relatively uncommon, it can be invaluable, but is of little assistance for a county in which a particular surname is plentiful. It is most frequently used as a means of narrowing the number of parish records to be searched in a case where only the county of origin of an ancestor is known. The Surnames section of this site includes a database version of the same householders count as the "Index of Surnames", but for Griffith's only.
The county volumes include outline maps of the civil parishes covered, and a guide to the corresponding Catholic parishes. Full sets of the Index of Surnames can be found at
The National Library of Ireland, The National Archives of Ireland, The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, and The Family History Library of the LDS Church.
In recent years, a number of full-name indexes to Griffith's have been produced on microfiche, by All-Ireland Heritage and Andrew Morris, both in the U.S. These list alphabetically all the householders in the Valuation, and show the townland and civil parish in which the entry is recorded. For the moment, the following areas have been covered by All-Ireland Heritage: counties Cork, Fermanagh, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, and the cities of Belfast, Cork and Dublin. In addition the following counties are covered by Andrew Morris: Mayo, Wicklow. The National Archives has copies of the indexes for Cork City and County, Dublin City, and Co. Fermanagh, while the National Library has copies of those for Counties Mayo and Wicklow.
These indexes have now been superseded by the CD-ROM index to the entire Valuation published in 1997 by Broderbund Software, in association with Heritage World of Dungannon and the Genealogical Publishing Company. The CD has the potential to be one of the most significant tools ever created for Irish genealogy, particularly for those who do not know the area of origin in Ireland , but it needs to be used with some caution - McCarthy, for instance, may be included as "Mc Carthy", "Mcarthy", "M'Carthy"" etc. and there are significant numbers of errors and omissions. If your ancestors do not appear where you think they should, check the originals. Despite any flaws, however, it is a very welcome resource. It is available to the public at the National Library.
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