The townland was and is the smallest officially recognized geographical unit in rural Ireland, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand. The average area was 350 acres. There are more than 65,000 recorded in the 1851 Townlands Index. It is not clear how they began. Boundaries tend to go with the topography of the area.

Number: There are 5429 Townlands in Cork
Use: used in Tithe Applotments Books and Griffiths Valuations

Civil parishes were the original units of administration of the medieval church in Ireland and were used right up to the end of the nineteenth century for local and central government. Because of this, they are extremely important for Irish genealogy, providing, for example, the only means of connecting a placename to the Roman Catholic records which cover it. Today, the civil parish is a state unit of territorial division for census and valuation purposes. The ecclesiastical parish is a unit of church administration and generally includes a number of civil parishes. When the Protestant Faith became the state religion it took over the civil parish as its base unit and this became the guide to tax collecting and census enumeration.

Number: There are 253 Civil parishes in Cork.
Use: Protestant parishes today are generally a combination of several civil parishes.

Up to the end of the nineteenth century, counties were subdivided into baronies, although they were not much used for administrative purposes and thus figure little in the records relevant to genealogical research. There were about 325 baronies in the country representing land divisions of great antiquity based on the Gaelic clan and family holdings. Their origin is uncertain. Possibly based on Early Irish Kingdoms or created by the Normans as an area ruled by a Baron.

Number: 23 in Cork.
Use: Collection of Taxes in 1800s,Census Applotments Books and Griffiths.

Workhouses were set up from the 1830s on to try to deal with the most destitute. The Poor Law Union Act of 1838 divided the country up into districts in which those local people who paid tax were responsible for the upkeep of the poor. The Poor Law Unions essentially were a means of organizing the Workhouse system for the relief of the Poor. They became the bases of the registration districts used for state records of births, marriages and deaths. Parishes and Baronies were often split between Unions and sometimes Counties. Townlands were not split. The Unions were also divided into Electoral Divisions that consisted of a number of Townlands for the purpose of electing the Board of Guardians of Work Houses by rate payers. This unit, in time, became the District Electoral Division. Dispensary Districts were created in 1851, and consisted of a number of Electoral divisions. These became Registrar’s Districts in 1864, the start of Civil registration in Ireland.

Number: 15 in Cork plus 3 others shared with Tipperary, Limerick and Waterford.
Use: As indicated above but also used today for national Elections and the Registration of Births, Marriages, and Deaths.

There are 32 counties in Ireland, varying greatly in size and population. Generally speaking, they are much larger and more populous than American counties.

There are four provinces in Ireland, Ulster (9 counties), Connacht (5 counties), Munster (6 counties) and Leinster (12 counties).