Snell intel.
Success using a new full-text search of Irish Deeds available on FamilySearch
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Gail Dever, who writes at Genealogy à la carte, has drawn our attention to a new full-text search collection available on FamilySearch, called Ireland, Properties, from 1298 to 1975. This collection includes records held by the Registry of Deeds in Dublin.
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The excellent indexes of the Deeds being compiled at
https://irishdeedsindex.net/
are very useful. The volunteers have indexed more than 600,000 index records from over 63,000 memorials of deeds. I have found the indexes invaluable for researching my Irish family. But there are many deeds still to be indexed.
The new full text search greatly expands the usefulness of the Irish Deeds collection even though the underlying data is in the form of transcribed handwriting.
This morning using the full text search of the collection I have identified the father of my 6th great-grandfather William Snell (1716 – 1779) as David Snell of Ballymoney, County Antrim.
In 2021 I wrote about this William Snell, complaining about how little information I could find. “I didn’t expect to find so few documented facts about him. But that’s genealogy, I suppose: sometimes we’re overwhelmed by information, sometimes there’s almost nothing.”
I was misled by a genealogy published by Stephen Isaacson Tucker ‘Pedigree of the family of Chauncy’ in 1884 which showed William Snell’s father as William.
Deed 176141 lodged in 1769 reference was made to various leasing agreements involving David Snell, who held properties in Ballymoney, County Antrim, during the mid-18th century. The lease for land was granted to David Snell by the Earl of Antrim in 1739. The document also mentions Snell’s sons, John and William, and their ages, indicating the future succession of the lease rights. Extracts from the memorial:
the the said David Snell did then hold and live in Cont in front thirty eight foot situate on the North side of the Market Street of Bally money bounded on the West by William ‘s Orr Tenemt and on the East by the Tenem , formerly called McCook ‘s Tenemt with the Barn & half of the garden on the south side of the Road leading to Colerain …
…and whereas the sd Alexr Earl of Antrim by his Indre of Lease under his hand and duly Executed bearing date the third day of July one thous seven hund and thirty nine for the consid therein ment and demise grant set and to farm let unto the sd Davd Snell his heirs admors or ass all that the Davd Snells Bleach Green or Park adjoining to the mile of Ballymoney the Park adjoining to his garden ) together with the other half of his garden the piece of ground then in the possion of the sd Dav Snell on the right of the road lead into Prospect by the upper road from Bally money the half of the Park
… for the natural Life and Lives of John Snell eldest son of the said David Snell then of the age of twenty one years for and during the natural Life of Wm Snell Second Son to the s. David ‘s then of the age of seventeen years …
David Snell’s sons were thus John, born about 1718, and William, born about 1722.
Deed 176303, a lease agreement dated June 19, 1769, refers to another lease dated December 20, 1765, made between David Snell and James Gardner, concerning three parcels of land in Ballymoney This second lease refers to William Snell of London Merchant and Son to the said David Snell.
This thus confirms that my sixth great grandfather, who was a merchant of London, was the son of David Snell.
The transcriptions are not perfect but they are clear enough, in this case at least, to make reliable inferences about William Snell and his father David of Ballymoney.
I look forward to exploring more of the collection.
Related posts
Wikitree:
William Snell (abt 1722 – 1779)
David Snell (abt. 1700 – abt. 1775)
This post first published at https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/snell-intel/