Question

Becky,

Legananny in Drumgooland parish is a townland (1894 acres). A townland is the smallest administrative area of land in Ireland. They can vary in size from 1 acre up to 5000 acres, though most are between 50 and 500 acres. The whole country is divided into townlands. Many are rural, and there is not necessarily any town in a townland. Indeed some have no-one living in them at all, eg mountain tops and uninhabited islands. Originating in the older Gaelic dispensation, and dating back to the 11^th century, if not earlier, townlands were used as the basis of leases in the estate system, and subsequently to assess valuations and tithes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In rural areas there were no street names or house numbers (that is still the case in some parts) and your townland was sufficient to identify you or get a letter delivered. The postman, and anyone else who mattered, knew exactly where in the townland everyone lived. They survive today as important markers of local identity.

A group of townlands makes a parish and a group of parishes makes a barony.

As far as Co Down is concerned, through the 1950s & 1960s, it was decided to name individual roads in many rural areas, and to allocate house numbers. Many roads werejust named after the townland, or something similar. So Legananny Hall Rd runs through the middle of Legananny townland, as does Dolmen Rd and Kilnhill Rd. But you won?t find reference to any of those road names anywhere prior to about 1950, because they simply didn?t exist.  The townland boundaries and the modern road names are all on the maps on the Griffiths Valuation site. Use the place name search option and then click on the townland map button. Use the slider bar in the top right hand corner of the map screen to switch between the 1860s map and a contemporary one.

You can use the Griffiths search facility to locate any other townland names in that area, that your ancestors may have mentioned in their letters.

Drumgooland has been known by that name since at least the 1700s. Here?s a link to some history of the local Church of Ireland church:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rosdavies/PHOTOSwords/DrumgoolandAll.htm

The problem you are up against, in respect of records from the 1700s, is that very few exist, and that is probably why you are struggling to find any more information. And such records that do exist are generally not on-line.  As farmers, your ancestors may have had leases which might be recorded in the Registry of Deeds records for the 1700s (though registration was not mandatory). They could also be mentioned in any estate papers held in PRONI, Belfast. However none of these records is on-line. You need to search for them in PRONI.

Here?s a link which gives a little information about the famine in Co Down.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rosdavies/WORDS/Famine.htm

Drumgooland is in Banbridge Poor Law Union. A good source for the local impact would be the Banbridge Board of Guardian Minutes which will report the numbers seeking assistance each week, as well giving as more general comments. For example, there will be reports on the need for outdoor relief, and the general state of the various crops being grown in the area.

Farmers in Co Down tended to grow a variety of crops, rather than being one crop dependant as in other parts,  and so although their potatoes were blighted they would usually have had oats, barley and hay, and so would have managed to cope. Those who suffered the worst were agricultural labourers and others with just a little plot of land eg 1 or 2 roods, which they only planted with potatoes.  (You can get more potatoes to the acre than any other crop, and they don?t require a lot of maintenance, and so this is why people were so keen to grow them). Money from weaving linen (which was mostly made in the Ulster counties) made a bit of a difference and was a reason why the impact of the famine wasn?t quite as bad in Co Down as in other parts of Ireland.

The Banbridge Board?s minutes are in PRONI (BG6) but again they are not on-line. A personal visit is required to access them. The Boards met weekly, and their reports are very detailed and so allow plenty of time if you intend to read several years worth.

You can search PRONI?s catalogue on-line. If you search under Legananny, you will find 158 records relating to that place name, but as you know there are two townlands of that name in Co Down so some references may relate to the other one.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/LL_DCAL_PRONI_ECATNI/SearchResults.aspx

You can also try a name search to see if any of your ancestors are listed in either the pre 1858 will indexes, coroners inquests, 1740 Protestant householders lists, 1766 religious census or the 1775 Dissenters petitions. (If they were Presbyterian, they?d be Dissenters).

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_ProniNames/SearchPage.aspx

Belfast Central Library has back copies of many local papers. Those for the Banbridge area would obviously be worth looking up for reports on the local impact of the famine. (They are not on-line).

Elwyn