Recently a fantastic new source was made available for Irish research - the deed memorials books from the Irish Registry of Deeds. The majority of the books are available online now on the FamilySearch website, with a few remaining to be digitized. The indexing system is far from perfect - you have to know either the grantor (either the landowner or a tenant who is subletting to an additional tenant) or the townland; there are separate index sets for both covering various date ranges. The deed books are arranged in numeric order from their beginning up to 1832; starting in 1833 they are grouped by year with the book numbers beginning again at number 1 for every subsequent year.
Search the Registry of Deeds books at FamilySearch.
I've started exploring the books to try to find out the origin of my great-great-great grandfather, Laurence O'Reilly. As I've previously written, I believed he was related to two brothers, Dr. Laurence O'Reilly of Ratoath and James O'Reilly. So far I still haven't pinned down exactly who his parents were, but surviving records strongly suggest he is related to an O'Reilly family at Kilbeg, Co. Meath. A deed I discovered in the Registry's records provided me with a full family group for these O'Reillys and confirmation that the doctor and his brothers were from the Kilbeg family.
Rather than transcribe the convoluted language of the deed in full, I'm just going to abstract and quote the most relevant portions to this family group. I've cleaned up some of the early 19th century idiosyncrasies in punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviation and tried to cut out extraneous language to keep the relationships between the people involved as clear as possible.
Irish Deed Memorials 1844: Book 3, Number 101 - O'Reilly to O'Reilly
Registered 3 June 1844; memorial of an indented deed of assignment dated 1 June 1832; from Dr. Laurence O'Reilly, Frances O'Reilly and Bridget O'Reilly, all of Ratoath Co. Meath and Rev. Bernard O'Reilly of Sarlat, France; to James O'Reilly of Clooney, Co. Meath. Mention of two earlier leases from the 1790s from George Williamson to "Charles Reilly of Robertstown". Charles Reilly "grandfather to the parties in said deed" and James Reilly "father to the parties"... died intestate leaving children Laurence, Bernard, Frances and Bridget, the said James and also Charles Reilly, Catherine Reilly and Margaret Reilly the surviving children of the said James Reilly... the last mentioned Charles Reilly of Kilbeg in the County of Meath, heir at law of the said Charles Reilly his grandfather and of said James Reilly his father had become entitled to lands... as such heir and further... said Laurence O'Reilly, Bernard O'Reilly, Frances O'Reilly and Bridget O'Reilly agreed to assign... said James O'Reilly their brother all their respective... interest in... said lease.
So, what is learned from this deed: the names of their father and grandfather, and their additional siblings. We can also infer from the reference to their brother Charles as the "heir at law" that he is the eldest (and also that he died prior to 1872, the year James died, when Dr. Laurence O'Reilly is described in newspaper reports of probate proceedings as the "eldest surviving brother" of James O'Reilly). It is also possible to use the land indexes to look up additional deeds relating to the properties named to try to find any additional ones that might involve the people in question. One of the things that also struck me about the names included in this deed were just how many of them repeated in the O'Reilly family I know to be mine. My great-great grandmother had brothers named Laurence, James, and Charles, as well as sisters named Catherine, Margaret and Frances. I've also been looking into an additional family of O'Reillys located at Newgrove, which is located in the same barony as Kilbeg (Kells) and which documentation suggests were acquainted with the ones at Kilbeg and may have been a branch of distant cousins. In both these families, there seems to be a clear pattern of chosen names which are then passed down. I don't believe it's a coincidence that so many of my great-great-great grandfather's children bore the same names as the O'Reillys from Kilbeg.
[text has been amended to correct a previous misidentification of an O'Reilly sibling as a brother rather than a sister, which a subsequent discovery among the civil death registrations has cleared up]
