The Place

Administrative Geography

So far, the physical geography of Cappawhite has been straightforward: the nation of Ireland, the province of Munster, the County Tipperary, the Village of Cappawhite. Unfortunately, when it comes to researching genealogy in Ireland, life doesn't?t stay this simple.  There are a variety of different administrative jurisdictions that cut across the straightforward county system and that cut across one another. 

These are jurisdictions that were formed for a variety of different administrative purposes, either with different historical roots or different cultural purposes, so the creators of these diverse administrative boundaries did not feel constrained to align new boundaries with the old.  Just to give one example, there are conflicting church boundaries: the Catholic church had an established system of archdioceses, dioceses, and parishes across all of Ireland dating from the 12^th century; subsequently, England instituted a system of counties and civil parishes that was essentially adopted by the Church of Ireland, but which use different names and boundaries than the RC system.  So, not only must different sets of records be searched (though most of the historical Buckleys of Cappawhite were Roman Catholic), but there may be multiple, non-overlapping R.C. and civil parishes involved.

Among the different types of boundaries we need to contend with are Baronies, Civil Parishes, Townlands, Roman Catholic archdiocese-dioceses-parishes, "Poor Law Unions," and  Civil Registration Districts.  Although it is beyond the scope of this website to explore the intricacies of these different divisions, I will touch on them briefly to indicate their significance for record searches, and refer the visitor to other web sites that will cover these topics in more detail.

Provinces:   

Ireland was first divided into provinces as early as the 6th century.  Today there are four provinces: the Cappawhite area, together with all of the southwest of Ireland, is located within the province of Munster.  This is mostly of historical interest and not of importance from a record-keeping standpoint.

Ireland Counties - Tipperary is #19 (source: Wikipedia)

Counties:  

There are 32 counties in Ireland.  Cappawhite itself is within Co. Tipperary, but it lies quite close to the border with Co. Limerick.  For this reason, we need to watch for tendrils of our roots that cross over into Limerick.  County Tipperary itself has been split into North Tipperary and South Tipperary since 1898 – corresponding, in part, I believe, to the dividing line between the Baronies of Kilmanagh Upper and Clanwilliam (see below).  This seems to be important mostly in on-line research, which often separates the smaller administrative divisions (parishes and townlands) between North and South.  Again, unhelpfully, Cappawhite is in Tipperary North, but lies very close to the border between the two.  So, some outlying areas of interest will be found in Tipperary South.

Baronies:

Baronies are political subdivisions that are smaller than counties, though their boundaries do not necessarily coincide with county boundaries.  There are 331 baronies in Ireland.  According to Wikipedia:

But they do come into play when searching for certain types of records.  For example, the Tithe Applotment records (a set of property records from about 1825-1830, commonly used as a sort of census-substitute for this time period) were organized according to baronies, so you need to be mindful of this when searching microfilm records of the Tithe Applotments.  Cappawhite lies within the Barony of Kilmanagh, Upper in Co. Tipperary, but some of the neighboring Tipperary lands south of Cappawhite lie within the Barony of Clanwilliam.  The western boundary of Clanwilliam does not quite coincide exactly with boundary between Tipperary and Limerick.

Civil Parishes:   

There are excellent on-line sources of information about the parishes of Co. Tipperary, including the Tipperary page from the IrelandGenWeb Project (http://www.rootsweb.com/~irltip/facts.htm) (a free site) and the Irish Ancestors site (http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/browse/counties/civilmaps/index.cfm).  The maps below are of the respective parishes of Tipperary North and South.  Clicking on the images will open a new window displaying the map on the IrelandGenWeb site.

The civil parishes of greatest interest to the Buckleys of Cappawhite are: Toem, Newport, Doon, and possibly Donohill, in Co. Tipperary; and Doon and possibly Grean, in Co. Limerick.

Townlands:   

Are subdivisions of civil parishes, and range anywhere from a few acres to over a thousand acres in size.  According to various sources on the web, there are over 60,000 townlands in Ireland.  So far as I can tell, there are not necessarily any important villages or towns that anchor the identity of the various townlands; they appear to have as much to do with the property holdings of the principle owner of the lands encompassed by the townland, which were then leased out (prior to the 20^th century) to tenant farmers – in other words, our ancestors.  

Most of my research has focused on the townlands of Toem and a few in Doon.  The principle townlands pertinent to the history of the Buckleys of Cappawhite in the 19^th century are: Shanacloon, Knockanavar, Cahernahallia, Moher (early in the century), and Kilmore (late in the century) in Toem; and Glengar, and Leugh in Doon.  The two maps below depict these townlands: at left, as they appear in the maps used in conjunction with Griffith’s Valuation; and, at right, superimposed on a modern map of the area.

The Archdiocese and The Parish

As mentioned above, the Catholic Church established ecclesiastical boundaries in Ireland in about the 12th century.  Cappawhite is located just a little ways west of the town of Cashel, historically one of the most important centers of the Catholic Church in Ireland.  It is here that St. Patrick is said to have explained the concept of the Holy Trinity to Angus, King of Munster, through the metaphor of a shamrock -- illustrating three parts making up a single whole. 

Although registers of each local parish can be inspected personally at the parish with permission from the priest, the Tipperary Family History Research Center (TFHR) has abstracted all marriage and baptismal records for the entire Archdiocese, and will provide the abstract details on a family-by-family basis for a standard fee.  See the TFHR site at: http://www.tfhr.org/   

Poor Law Unions, SRDs, RD,s & EDs:

In 1838, Parliament established a system for dealing with poverty in Ireland through enactment of the Poor Law Act.  Under the Act, the country was ultimately divided in 130 "Poor Law Unions," each of which contained a dormitory and workhouse for the poor, and various ancillary institutions.  These PLUs were typically set up in important town centers, but the PLU boundaries otherwise bore no relation to counties, baronies, or parishes.  The inhabitants within the PLU boundaries paid a sort of tax to support the "poor and destitute" living within the PLU.  

Oddly enough, when Ireland instituted compulsory registration of births and deaths in 1864, it was the PLU boundaries (rather than counties or baronies) that were used to define these new "Superintendent Registrar's Districts."  Each SRD was subsequently subdivided into smaller Dispensary/Registrar's Districts," which later were themselves were divided into "Election Districts."  The Tipperary site of the IrelandGenWeb Project has a really excellent explanation of these districts, which you need to understand if you are to obtain civil birth of death records required after 1864.  See this site at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irltip/PoorLaw.htm .

For our purposes, just know that all of the region involving the Buckleys of Cappawhite south of Newport is within the Tipperary Poor Law Union, Cappagh District.  Most of Toem is in the Cappagh Election District; and the portion of Doon consisting of Glengar and Leugh is in the Glengar Election District.  Ayle is in the Grean District, Drumwood Election District.