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When the Society decided to place the 1901 Census for the Lecale area on the internet it was conscious that, in the absence of any earlier census returns, it would be useful to add the information from Griffiths Valuation of Ireland, which for Lecale was published in 1863. With both sets of information available the visitor, whether a casual reader or a serious researcher, would be able to easily compare the information from both sources.

The bulk of the material on the site consists of images of the pages from the original volume. However, to assist the reader, the opportunity has also been taken to extract the personal information about the occupiers of the properties (in Griffith's terms 'tenements') to construct an alphabetical index which links each name to the page image.

There are a couple of points which need explanation -

1. The numbers and letters in the first column on each page refer to the location of the tenement on the 6" to the mile townland and equivalent town maps that were prepared the same time as the valuations. In many cases there are several occupiers attached to a number, further identified by the letters. For the purposes of the index however, only the first number is given. This is for simplicity and for the index is sufficient, with the name of the townland or street, to allow the reader to identify the name on the page.
2. The description of the tenement in the third column identifies the type of holding; for example 'house', 'house, offices and land', 'Land' etc. This means that in many cases the same individual may be listed in the townland/street and/or in different places. There is no way of knowing whether these names refer to the same person. For the purposes of the index the appearance of each occupier of a tenement is recorded, irrespective of whether the same name appears several times.
3. Griffiths transcribes all surnames beginning with "Mac" or "Mc" as "M'". We have converted each such prefix as "Mc".

The Society is grateful to it's Australian member, Ros Davies, well known to many in Lecale for her Co. Down resource at Ros Davies' County Down Website, for helping in the transcription of the names and location details of those listed as 'occupiers' in Griffith's Valuation, which is a time-consuming and meticulous process.

We would welcome feedback (email us at admin@lecalehistory.co.uk) on the content and presentation of the material. Please note our copyright statement.