In 1873 the Local Government Board in Ireland set about to ascertain the number and names of owners of land of one acre and upwards in Ireland. Clerks of the various Poor Law Unions were called upon to draw up lists of such persons from the property valuation and rate books in their custody. The lists were returned to the Local Government Board by the end of 1875, arranged into counties, alphabetized, and finally published in 1876. Since the returns include the names of small landowners as well as large–owners of modest acres as well as great estates–they stand as a census of a significant proportion of the population of Ireland in 1876, and no doubt contain the names of many people who were related to emigrants of an earlier period.