Eneclann Ltd and Origins.net, in association with the National Library of Ireland, have made The Primary Valuation of Ireland 1847–1864, commonly known as Griffith’s Valuation, available on the web. Between 1847 and 1864 the Valuation Office, under the direction of Richard Griffith, carried out the first systematic valuation of property holdings in Ireland. It contains information concerning over one million people, from the smallest farmer to the largest landlord. Most of the census records for the nineteenth century were destroyed at the outbreak of the Civil War in June 1922, when the Public Records Office, housed in the Four Courts, was burned down. The Griffith Valuation therefore represents the most comprehensive survey of households available for the period. For this reason it is a principal tool of genealogists and local historians. The new web service will be the definitive resource for the Valuation. All available copies—which were published in several versions at different times between 1847 and 1864—have been indexed, and digital images of the source publications are available on the website. The selection of the original documents has been made with the assistance of George Handran, a world expert on Griffith’s work. The website can be accessed, on a pay per view basis, at www.irishorigins.com and is available free of charge to readers in the National Library of Ireland.
