The Townlands of the Roman Catholic Parishes of South Leitrim 

As stated elsewhere on this site, the familys are represented as being associated with at least of 6 defined areas of south Leitrim. These areas equate to the boundaries of the 6 Roman Catholic Parishes of the area, as it is felt that these definitions of area are most relevant and useful today.

The Map of Leitrim shows the 6 areas in question: Aghavas; Annaduff; Bornacoola; Cloone; Gortletteragh and Mohill. Ideally this site would include some more maps of each of these areas and it is hoped to add this feature in the future. In the meantime, however, those wishing to get an idea of the general layout of the townlands within their respective Civil Parishes should visit the Leitrim-Roscommon website's map pages.

Other mapping options include the free Townlands.ie where, by entering the name of a particular townland, one can see its boundaries and the names of its neighbouring townlands, on a modern Google Maps type map. Of perhaps more general use to the historian are the freely available Ordnance Survey maps (including the original 6" and 25" versions) that can be found on the Geohive viewer. This takes a little getting used to but is, I suggest, well worth visiting.

Here on the Your Leitrim Ancestors site will be found 7 pages of townland listings. The first is an overall listing showing the townlands arranged in alphabetical order sorted by Catholic Parish. Each of the other 6 pages is dedicated to one Catholic Parish area; as well listing the townlands each of these shows any sub-denominations that have been encountered during research.

The listings show, for each townland: the Civil Parish in which it lies; the county in which it lies (a small number of Bornacoola townlands are in Co Longford); The Superintendent Registrar's District which it falls under; the Registrar's District which it falls under; the District Electoral Division in which it lies; and finally, as it could be useful in pre-1850 research, the Barony in which it lies.

The allocation of a townland to a particular Catholic Parish is based on the data supplied by John Hunter in his CD-ROM publication Resource County Leitrim. This was first published in 2006 and it is not clear if it can still be purchased. In April 2022 a seller in Australia (John Hunter's native country) was offering the disc at a very reasonable price. It might be worthwhile for anybody considering researching Leitrim ancestry to check for availability. The allocation of the other details is based on a variety of sources: Resource County Leitrim, the Leitrim-Roscommon website; the Iregaz database, Census data, Tithe Applotment Books, Griffith's Valuation, and finally Handran's Townlands in Poor Law Unions.

I have endeavored to spell all place names correctly according to their formal names. No doubt I have not always succeeded. Indeed in the case of sub-denominations there is probably no formal version. In any case if it appears that a townland is omitted from the listings on this site, I would suggest visiting one or more of the following for its correct spelling, and then reviewing my listing in case of error on my part: the excellent online gazeteer provided by Adrian Stevenson at Iregaz; Townlands.ie or Geohive viewer,