Full-Text images- Jeremiah Malone

The buzz in the genealogy world is all about Full-Text images, where for some record sets on the FamilySearch website you can now search through documents for specific words or phrases. Several people told me that it was possible now to search for Irish Deeds this way, so I thought I might have a 'quick look'. 

And a 'quick look' was all it took.  Jeremiah Malone, my great-grandfather, has a reasonably distinctive name, and a record turned up for a land conveyance to him in Ballynadrideen quite easily, in 1887.  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKS-2YN?view=fullText

Jeremiah was able to purchase the land at Ballynadrideen on which he was the tenant farmer, from the vendor Standish Henry Harrison Esquire, of Castle Harrison. The purchase, for £705, was made possible with an advance to Jeremiah from the Irish Land Commission. This happened under the provisions of the purchase of Land (Ireland) Act of 1885.

There is another document for Jeremiah Malone, dated April 1904 in which Maurice Malone (his son) is described as also being a subscriber to the deed. I don’t know enough about the legalities of this, but perhaps this was part of the process of Jeremiah passing his interest in the land over to his son more fully? https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKS-2S2L-7?view=fullText

At this stage in April 1904 both parents of Maurice Malone were alive, though Margaret Malone née Riordan died a few months later on 11 July 1904. Jeremiah Malone himself died two years later on 22 July 1906, with probate being granted to his son Maurice Malone. Probate applied to his Effects, £143 5s 0d, and did not mention the land. 

 I don’t understand all the complexities of the history, but in the 1870s/1880s in Ireland, there were legal moves made to help tenant farmers take ownership of their land from the large landlords who had had control of them. In 1870 a Land Act was passed that gave tenants some very basic rights including a right to compensation for improvements in case of eviction. In 1871 in Cullane, John Riordan became one of the tenant farmers facing eviction when the landlord hugely increased the rents. Cullane became a test case for the power of the new Land Act.

By the way, I tried a similar Deeds search for John or James Riordan in Ballylanders/ Cullane South- but there was a lawyer called John Riordan, so much more diligent searching will be needed to filter and find what I am sure must be there!

Family Search have made it very easy to download the full document as well as the AI-generated transcription. You can then find the url link and citation text at the end of the download.

Of course I then had to delve more deeply into this rabbit-hole, which wasn't on my Priority List for 2025 in any way! I found something about the history of the great house that was Castle Harrison on Wikipedia. It was demolished after 1956, but Wikipedia had a photo of it.

And I also then looked for an Ordnance Survey map on the National Library of Scotland's Map website. Ballynadrideen, where the Malone farm was, was quite close to Castle Harrison. (It's interesting looking at earlier maps before the railway ate into the Great House's land.

I'm unlikely to ever find my way back to Ireland now, but you never know, one of my nieces or nephews might, or perhaps a cousin's child. It would be good if someone can go back and stand on the land.