CONDR*Ns of King's County (Offaly)

As I have said before, the CONDR*Ns perhaps originate from County Offaly (which was called King's County until 1922) in the midlands of Ireland. There are many CONDR*Ns (mostly CONDRON) in the county in the Griffith's Valuation of Ireland (mid 19th century) and in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.

It was only recently, however, when responding to a question about someone's King's County CONDRON ancestors, that I thought to map out where in Offaly the CONDR*Ns were distributed.

This county map shows the distribution of CONDR*Ns in the 1901 census for King's County.

Places with CONDR*N heads of household in the 1901 census

The small dots each indicate a townland with one household in which the head of household was a CONDR*N. The larger dots show townlands with more than one CONDR*N head of household, as follows: Clonfinlough and Glaskill (each have 4 such households), Pollagh (3 households). (A townland is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. There are more than 1,100 townlands in Offaly.) The star denotes Tullamore, the county town, where there was also one CONDRON head of household.

The CONDR*Ns are pretty well spread about and don't have a single centre of concentration, though they are predominantly around Tullamore and in the west of the county.

The 1901 census is the earliest surviving census of the whole of Ireland. However a useful "census substitute" is the Griffith's Valuation of Ireland which recorded landowners and tenants in the mid 19th century. For King's County, the valuation was completed in July 1855, almost fifty years earlier than the 1901 census and almost ten years before universal civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1864. Therefore the Griffith's Valuation is a useful early snapshot of where people lived.

Places with CONDR*Ns in the mid 19th century Griffiths valuation

This county map shows the distribution of CONDR*Ns in King's County in the Griffith's Valuation. Each small dot indicates one CONDR*N tenancy in that townland. The bigger dots indicate multiple CONDR*N tenancies, as follows: Glaskill (6 such tenancies), Clonfinlough (3 tenancies) and Fertaun (which almost merges with Glaskill on the map: 2 tenancies). There was one CONDRON tenant in Tullamore.

This shows that Glaskill (in Rahan & Lynally Roman Catholic parish) and Clonfinlough (in Clonmacnoise parish) were concentrations of CONDR*Ns in the mid 19th century as well as at the beginning of the 20th century. Although a few other place names are in common between the circa 1855 and 1901 distributions, most others are different although the overall geographical locations are similar. This is probably because the CONDR*Ns were generally tenant farmers, not land owners, and so by choice or - more likely - force of circumstance were more likely to move around than land owners would.


Comments and corrections welcome, either by leaving a comment below or by email to me: CONDRAN[AT]ONE-NAME.ORG .