IRISH ROOTS:

RESEARCHING IRISH ANCESTRY

YOU’LL NEED NOT ONLY THE ANGELS ON

YOUR SIDE BUT ALSO

Approximately

10,000 three-

leaf clovers for

every four-leaf

clover.

WHY IS IRISH RESEARCH SO DIFFICULT?

Destruction of the Public Record Office in Dublin

in June 1922 means loss of

- 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 census

- Over 50% of Church of Ireland parish registers

- Wills and court records

1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 census records

destroyed by bureaucratic mistake

Civil registration does not begin until 1864 for all

births, deaths and marriages

Roman Catholic parish records are ‘lacking’ until

the middle of the 19th century

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, DUBLIN

Scene of conflict between the

Free State forces and the

IRA at the end of June 1922.

The IRA munitions were

stored in the Record

Treasury room. On 30th June

they exploded.

LANGUAGE DIFFICULTY

Irish Gaelic is pronounced (in English)

'gay-lik'.

Scottish Gaelic is pronounced (in English)

‘gal-ick’

The (Scottish) Gaelic name for (Scottish)

Gaelic is Gàidhlig, pronounced 'gaa-lik', not to

be confused with the Irish (Gaelic) name for

Irish (Gaelic), which is written Gaeilge

and pronounced 'gail-gyuh‘.

http://www.cuhwc.org.uk/page/unofficial-guide-pronouncing-gaelic

IRISH NAMES

Spelling was a matter of indifference to most

people

Kilfoyle, Gilfoyle, Guilfoile

Prefixes ‘O’ or ‘Mac’ were treated as entirely optional

Very rare for more than the first name to be

registered

John James (O’)Reilly will almost certainly appear in

the register as simple John Reilly

IRISH PLACENAMES

Can be confusing since the ‘distinguishing’ part of the name is at the end rather than the beginning.

Knock from cnoc – a hill

Bally from baile – a town or townland

Agha from achadh – a field

http://www.irish-place-names.com/meanings/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_names_in_Ireland

Many names are anglicised spelling of the Gaelic originals.

Many anglicised place names have been returned to an Irish spelling original, ‘Iniskillen’ (etc) to ‘Enniskillen’ Inis Ceithleann Dublin – ‘Duibhlinn’ officially ‘Baile Atha Cliath’

UNFAMILIAR GEOGRAPHY

Four provinces Ulster (more than modern Northern Ireland)

Leinster

Munster

Connaught

Divided in counties, e.g Tyrone

Offaly

etc

Dublin is a county as well as a city

Ecclesiastical diocese boundaries do not align with provinces or counties

Ecclesiastical provinces (c.f. Canterbury, York) Armagh – roughly Ulster

Tuam – roughly Connaught

Cashel – roughly Munster

Dublin – roughly Dublin

BASIC MAP

http://

irlande.web-sy.fr/

provinces_map.jpg

TOWNLANDS

The townland is the smallest administrative unit in Ireland.

Gaelic (‘Gay-lik’) origins but some names and boundaries are later.

61,098 townlands as of 2014

Average size about 325 acres but varies widely from 0.625 acres to 7500 acres

Until the 19th century, most townlands were owned by a single person and occupied by multiple tenants.

Home locations are more likely to be defined by townland than parish or village

Use Google to find a townland or www.askaboutireland.ie

IRISH HISTORY

The Norman Conquest and the English Pale

The Reformation

The Plantations

Elizabeth

Cromwell

William of Orange

Catholic emancipation

The Famine and Emigration

Home rule

THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE PALE

THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE PALE

NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE ENGLISH

PALE

The Norman invasion of Ireland, beginning in 1169, brought much of Ireland briefly under the theoretical control of the Plantagenet Kings of England.

From the 13th century onwards, the Hiberno-Norman occupation in the rest of Ireland at first faltered, then waned.

The Pale (An Pháil in Irish) was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast

TURNING IRELAND ENGLISH

1558

Predominately Gaelic west and north “inhabited by a

rude and savage people ('the wild Irish') living in bogs

and mountains.”

Smaller, more 'civil', 'Englishry' (the English Pale

around Dublin and the south) contained numerous

English-style towns and villages and prided itself on

its Englishness and loyalty.

An experiment with limited colonisation in Leix-

Offaly proved disastrously expensive, requiring large

garrisons to repel the expropriated O'Mores and

O'Connors after the shiring of their lordships as

Queen's and King's Counties (1557).

TURNING IRELAND ENGLISH

Clerical property in Ireland was in a manner

annihilated in Henry VIIIs reign. Bishoprics,

colleges, glebes and tithes were divided without

mercy amongst the great men of the time, or

leased out on small rents for ever to the friends

and relations of the incumbents. Many Irish

bishoprics never recovered this devastation,

Irish Act of Uniformity, passed in 1560, made

worship in churches adhering to the Church of

Ireland compulsory.

TURNING IRELAND ENGLISH (PART 2)

The Reformation crisis also fuelled the government's

fears about rebellion in Ireland. All three borderlands

were 'backward in religion', but the queen feared that

a crackdown on Catholic dissent as urged by her

bishops and ministers might unite religious and

political dissidents.

Experiments at colonisation, notably in east Ulster

(in 1572-3), and the Munster plantation from 1584

smacked of ethnic cleansing.

Gradual escalation of violence and atrocities

1601 - English rule now enjoyed less indigenous

support than in 1558.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/elizabeth_ireland_01.shtml

ELIZABETH AND THE REFORMATION

The bulk of Protestants in Ireland during

Elizabeth's reign were confined to the ranks of

new settlers and government officials, who

formed a small minority.

Amongst the native Gaelic Irish and Old English,

recusancy predominated and was tolerated by

Elizabeth for fear of alienating the Old English

further. Regardless an unlikely alliance slowly

formed between the Gaelic and Old

English landed gentry.

i.e. Ireland was basically Roman Catholic but the

state church was Protestant

IRELAND AND CROMWELL

Following the Irish Rebellion of 1641, most of

Ireland came under the control of the Irish

Catholic Confederation.

In early 1649, the Confederates allied with the

English Royalists, who had been defeated by

the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War.

By May 1652, Cromwell's Parliamentarian army

had defeated the Confederate and Royalist

coalition in Ireland and occupied the country.

The Parliamentarian re-conquest of Ireland was

brutal, and Cromwell is still a hated figure in

Ireland.

THE PLANTATIONS Plantations involved the

confiscation of land by the English

crown and the colonisation of this

land with settlers from the England

and, later, Scotland.

The 16th-century plantations were

established throughout the country

by the confiscation of lands occupied

by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman

dynasties, but principally in the

provinces of Munster and Ulster.

The plantations accelerated

under James I, Charles I and Oliver

Cromwell; in their time, land was

also granted to Scottish planters.

i.e. an infusion of Protestants into

mainly Roman Catholic Ireland.

WILLIAM OF ORANGE - ADMIRED

OR HATED

“…to the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat.”

WILLIAM III (WILLIAM OF ORANGE)

Invited to succeed the Roman Catholic James II.

James II had great support in Ireland

William’s victory over James II forces at the Battle of

the Boyne (1690), confirmed at the Battle of Aughrim

(1691)

Sealed the Protestant Ascendancy and created the

fault line between Catholics and Protestants for the

next 300+ years

English soldiers and traders became the new ruling

class, as its richer members were elevated to the Irish

House of Lords and eventually controlled the Irish

House of Commons. This class became collectively

known as the Anglo-Irish.

CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION

From Elizabeth I to William III and the first Hanoverians, discrimination against Catholics increased (instead of relaxing as in England).

Catholics were forbidden to own land, as was education and religious instruction

From the family history point of view Roman Catholics were forbidden to keep church records

This discrimination was relaxed from about 1800 onwards

From 1871 onward the Anglican Church was no longer the state church in Ireland (entitled to tithes &tc) and became known as the Church of Ireland

THE IRISH FAMINE

1845 - 1852

Caused by potato blight Phytophthora infestans

IRISH EMIGRATION

In the Republic of Ireland, it was only

after 1960 that the natural population

increase exceeded emigration,

Ireland's Great Famine 1845-1849 http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/index.htm

IRISH HOME RULE

1912 (Third) Home Rule Bill passed, enacted on outbreak of First World War, suspended for the duration of the war

Easter Rising of 1916 - put down in 1 week

1920 The Government of Ireland Act

Separate states for Northern and Southern Ireland

1919 – 1921 Irish War of Independence / Black and Tan war

1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty leading to creation of Irish Free State 6 Dec 1922 (Dominion status)

Civil war between Irish Free State and Sinn Fein broke out June 1922

1937 End of Dominion status. Ireland / Eire

1948 Republic of Ireland Act – formally a Republic

RESOURCES AVAILABLE

The census

1901 and 1911 census available from www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie Family Search, Ancestry, FindMyPast

Fragments survive for 1821 – 1851 for some counties, as follows:

Antrim, 1851; Belfast city (one ward only), 1851; Cavan, 1821 and 1841; Cork, 1841;

Dublin city (index to heads of household only), 1851; Fermanagh, 1821, 1841 and 1851; Galway, 1813 (numerical returns for Longford barony) and 1821; King’s County (Offaly), 1821; Londonderry (Derry), 1831 – 34; Meath, 1821; Waterford, 1841.

Some information available from earlier censuses via census search forms. Used as proof of age in absence of civil birth certificate and baptismal registers.

CENSUS SEARCH FORMS

PARISH REGISTERS

The major religions of Ireland are the Catholic

Church and Church of Ireland (Anglican). The

Presbyterian Church is also prominent,

especially in Northern Ireland.

In 1861 78% of the population were Catholic in

and 12% Church of Ireland, based on statistics

extracted from the census of that year.

CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTERS

Catholic Parish Registers at the National library of Ireland (NLI)

http://registers.nli.ie/

the majority of Catholic parishes in Ireland and Northern Ireland up to 1880.

Can view registers but not search

Better is www.IrishGenealogy.ie for searching but not viewing. (Free)

Catholic Parish Registers at FMP

Spanning over 200 years of Ireland's history from 1671-1900, The Irish Catholic Parish Registers contain over 40 million names from over 1,000 parishes that cover 97% of the entire island of Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. (Free index, pay to view)

Ancestry - Index and register view

MISSING CATHOLIC REGISTERS

You might ask why they are ‘missing’. There are a number of reasons – ‘lost’, ‘missing without explanation’, ‘fire’, ‘flood’, the ‘Black and Tans’, ‘illegible’.

Some of these reasons are understandable. Due to the Penal Laws, it was not possible or legal for Catholic Priests to keep a record of Births or Marriages so very few records survive until the early to middle part of the 19th Century.

Parish Priests of the early nineteenth century, particularly in rural areas, lived a precarious lifestyle, didn’t have secretaries, a number didn’t have a permanent residence, not to mention an office and it is a miracle that so many registers have in fact survived.

What remains of the original parish registers are still kept in local custody. They are often in a fragile state and may not be accessible to researchers.

CHURCH OF IRELAND REGISTERS

The state church until 1 Jan 1871

In 1876 a law was passed requiring that Church

of Ireland parish registers be sent to the Public

Record Office (now the National Archives) in

Dublin for safekeeping.

Err..

CHURCH OF IRELAND REGISTERS

The state church until 1 Jan 1871

In 1876 a law was passed requiring that Church of Ireland parish registers be sent to the Public Record Office (now the National Archives) in Dublin for safekeeping.

As I was saying …

This law was amended in 1878 to allow parishes with good storage facilities to retain their records, so not all parish records were sent to Dublin. Further, some ministers made copies of their records before sending the originals to Dublin.

Thus, many Church of Ireland records remain, even though the records sent to Dublin were destroyed in 1922 when the Public Record Office burned.

CHURCH OF IRELAND REGISTERS

Pot luck as to whether registers have survived,

been transcribed, available on line.

Irish Family History Foundation

www.rootsireland.ie

Search for free – pay to see transcripts £10 1 day, £18

1 month, 12 month £160

Irish Genealogical Projects www.igp-web.com

Search facility on website can miss results

Best Google ‘IGP <parish>’

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Ancestral records for Irish Presbyterians do not, typically, date much further back than the 1820s. Which is not to say there are NO really old registers. The earliest surviving register is for the parish of Antrim in County Antrim which dates from 1674.

That is a rarity, however. Few go back even to the 18th century, let alone the 17th. The reality is that by far the largest proportion of Presbyterian registers don't start until the 19th century.

Due to a long period of religious and civil presecution in Ireland, many pre-1830s baptisms, marriages and burials of Irish Presbyterians will be found in Church of Ireland registers.

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has microfilmed nearly all registers of Ireland's Presbyterian congregations. According to the Presbyterian Historical Society, PRONI's 'coverage is so extensive that there are relatively few congregations whose records have not been deposited in some form in PRONI. So, clearly, PRONI should be your first stop.

Records available on microfiche, generally not on-line.

METHODIST CHURCH

Until the second decade of the 1800s, Methodists usually had dual membership with their local (Anglican) parish church, which they attended for family events such as christenings, weddings and funerals.

Marriages at Methodist churches only legal from 1863 – but information will be in civil registration anyway

Very few Methodist burial registers exist because there were only a small number of Methodist chapels across the island and only a small proportion of them had any land. So if you are looking for the death or burial record of a particular family or Irish ancestor, search the local Church of Ireland registers. Methodist baptism, marriage and burial registers were the personal

property of individual ministers. They tended to travel over large areas (circuits) in order to preach to their flocks so the geographical scatter of each register can be confusing and you may have to look through a good many sets of records in your Irish ancestry search.

Of course, the itinerant nature of the minister's life also meant that some registers were lost.

Records at chapel or PRONI.

CIVIL REGISTRATION

State registration of (just) non-Catholic marriages began in Ireland in 1845

All births, deaths and marriages have been registered since 1864

Southern Ireland indexes to Births over 100 years old (i.e. up till 1916)

Marriages over 75 years old (i.e. up till 1941)

Deaths over 50 years old (i.e. up till 1966)

available at www.IrishGenealogy.ie (free)

Available on FamilySearch up till 1958 (except NI from 1922)

Some full transcripts on www.rootsireland.ie (pay)

The official site of the Northern Ireland General Register Office www.groni.gov.uk allows access to a full database of the transcripts of their records from 1922 onwards (from 1845/1864 for areas now in Northern Ireland) on a pay per view basis.

Indexes available on Family Search (and Ancestry and FMP)

LAND AND PROPERTY RECORDS

Griffith’s Valuation (1847 – 1863)

Tithe Applotment Books

1876 Landowners List

Estate Records

Landed Estate Court Rentals

Deeds

Recommended website http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Ireland-genealogy.html

LAND TENURE

Smallholders numbered 408,000 in 1841. Of these 65,000 had holdings of less than 1 acre

Many had to rely on access to income from elsewhere, such as peat-digging or using waste-land for common grazing, domestic industry (which was declining anyway), kelp collecting, fishing (where possible) or seasonal work on large farms.

Smallholders with between 6 and 15 acres were classed as small farmers.

Whatever the size of their holdings, virtually none had written agreements with their landlords to give them legal security of tenure. The sad plight of these groups dominates contemporary and much historical writing, but they did not constitute the entire population, and their numbers and economic significance declined from the mid-century.

LAND TENURE

Rack-renting “... landlords were able to 'auction

off' leases to the highest bidders. That practice,

known as 'rack renting', forced renters to bid

more than they could afford to pay.“

“excessive, extortionate rent is obtained by threat

of eviction resulting in uncompensated

dispossession of improvements the tenant

himself has made”.

Notorious but my own, limited, research shows

long term tenancies.

http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/ireland/ire-

land.htm

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

In the early 19th century, taxes were based on property and the methods of calculation varied from county to county.

The Government wanted to create a consistent system and needed to find out who its people were and how much they might be able to tax them, so it tasked Richard Griffith, the director of the Valuation Office in Dublin, to carry out a land survey. This resulted in

The General Valuation of the Rateable Property in Ireland otherwise known as The Primary Valuation (of Tenements)

The survey was published between 1847 and 1864, so it is only a snapshot of each county, not the whole of Ireland.

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

- DATES OF PUBLICATION

Use map on right or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Griffith%27s_Valuation

(I have some reservations

about the exact dates on

wikipedia)

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

GRIFFITH’S

VALUATION

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION - MAP

A crucial part of the project was the mapping of Ireland. Carried out by the British Army Royal Engineers, a detailed map at the scale of six inches to one mile was created. It was the first time an entire country had been mapped.

It allowed administrative boundaries to be established and identified all features and buildings on the land.

Each occupier's reference can be found on the relevant Ordnance Survey maps (which survive intact), allowing genealogists to identify the exact piece of land their ancestors lived on. Ordnance Survey, 1824 - 1846

The detailed maps of Ireland that make up this database took 20 years to complete.

Map sheets 108-125 are missing from the collection. These sheets cover approximately 10 percent of County Galway, mainly in the south of the county.

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION - MAP

GRIFFITH’S VALUATION

The men who worked as Valuers were native-born Irish and understood traditional naming patterns and the use of a father's first name to distinguish between men who had the same name.In townlands where a surname was common, the Valuers distinguished between individuals in various ways.

Typically, they would add, in brackets after a person's name, the first name of that person's father.

So, for example, John Tobin (Patrick) is the son of Patrick Tobin, whereas John Tobin (Michael) is the son of Michael Tobin.

Where relevant, the abbreviations Snr (Senior, or father) and Jnr (Junior, or son) were sometimes used.

Similarly, occupations were often used as identifiers ie Jeremiah Crowley (farmer) and Jeremiah Crowley (victualler).

Such entries can be a huge bonus because there may be no other document in existence to provide these family connections between the individuals named. They're 'genealogical gold'!

LAND TENURE –

TITHE APPLOTMENT BOOKS

Compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to

determine the amount which occupiers of

agricultural holdings over one acre should pay in

tithes to the Church of Ireland

Now digitally imaged

Database giving surname, forename, county,

parish and townland created.

Did not cover urban areas http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/index.jsp

and on Ancestry

THE VALUE OF TITHE APPLOTMENT

BOOKS TO IRISH GENEALOGISTS.

The Tithe Applotment Books record the occupiers of tithe-eligible land, not householders. They are not population censuses.

Because the tithe was payable only by those who worked on agricultural land, you may not find your ancestors included.

Those labourers who worked on agricultural land owned by the Church were exempt. So, too, were those labourers who did not rent land, as were those who lived and worked in urban areas.Even so, the books represent the earliest records for the poor of Ireland, a group for whom very few other genealogical records survive from this period.

In fact, if your ancestors lived in one of the rural parishes for which no pre-1850 church registers exist, Tithe Applotment books may also be the only records available.

TITHE APPLOTMENTS – JOHN LARKIN

No 252

Denomination (Townland) Bleakfield

H(ead) L(and) Lord Westrop Smith

Occupying Tenant John Larkin

A R P 64

Quality 5

Rate per acre 1/6

Yearly amt of Each Person £4 16s

There are 49 John Larkin s listed, eg.

Larkin John Bleakfield Aghameadle Tipperary 1825

LAND AND PROPERTY RECORDS

- 1876 LANDOWNERS LIST

In 1876 a list of landowners who held at least one

acre of land was published. The survey had been

commissioned in 1873 by the Local Government

Board and required the Poor Law Unions across

Ireland to gather together lists of landowners

from local rate books. NB not tenants

The last of the returns to the Board was dated

November 1872. When collated, some 32,614

owners were listed alphabetically by province

and county, alongside details of the extent of

their land and its current valuation.

The 1876 list is available, free, at Failte Romhat.

LAND AND PROPERTY RECORDS

- ESTATE RECORDS

These records offer the best opportunity to trace Irish ancestors into the 18th and even the 17th centuries.

They include information about the wealthy families who once owned great swathes of Ireland. Genealogy researchers find them useful because these families employed vast numbers of retainers ie domestic staff, farm hands, stone masons and other craftsmen, and were also landlords, granting leases to tenant farmers and labourers.

Estate records can be difficult to track down. Some remain in the family's archives; some have been deposited with solicitors; an increasing number are being deposited in local archives (who may or may not have the resources to catalogue them). Others, inevitably, have not survived. Where they do survive, however, they can be of variable quality but they can sometimes provide spectacularly good detail.

LAND AND PROPERTY RECORDS

- LANDED ESTATE COURT RENTALS

After the Famine, many landowners found

themselves financially if not morally

embarrassed. Parliament set up a Court to

administer the sale of these insolvent estates in

1848/9 and pre-sale catalogues were produced to

entice prospective buyers.

These sale particulars provided details of tenants

on the land, together with the value and terms of

their tenancy or rental commitment. They cover

the entire island of Ireland. Genealogical

potential is significant, since more than 500,000

tenants are recorded in the collection.

LAND AND PROPERTY RECORDS

- DEEDS

The Registry of Deeds was founded in Dublin in 1708 but its heyday, in terms of popularity, was 1750-1830. While it covers arrangements for a lot more than land, the Registry can be very useful for finding out when land was transferred from one party to another.

By far the majority of the Irish population owned no land nor anything else of such value that its ownership needed to be formally recorded, so this resource is not going to assist many family historians. However, if your family did register deeds you are in for a treat as these records frequently mention two or more generations

LAND TENURE

Before the famine, it was fairly common for farmers

to sub-divide their lands between their sons. The

birth rate was reasonably high (around 33/1000

according to the 1841 census), so there were often

several sons to divide the farm between.

In the post famine period farmers had learned the

lesson, and this system of "impartible land

inheritance" largely disappeared. In general, parents

passed the farm, intact, to a single son while giving

educational or financial assistance to siblings,

sometimes to settle elsewhere or to emigrate.

Ireland's Great Famine 1845-1849 http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/index.htm

PROBATE – WILLS AND ADMINISTRATION

National Archives of Ireland for Wills/adminstration

for all Ireland 1858 - 1922

(Only name and year for wills before [1877?])

Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 which is available

online at FindMyPast (includes other similar

information)

Also search Google

Example

SWINDLE John 21 August Probate of the Will of

John Swindle late of Attybarn County Fermanagh

Farmer who died 20 July 1902 granted at Dublin to

Thomas Adams Merchant and James Forster Retired

Bank Official Effects £159 12s 6d

IRISH WILLS (CONT)

Almost all pre-1922 wills were destroyed along

with the Dublin Public Record Office

The exceptions are

Will books for Down (1850-1858)

Will books for Connor (1818-1820), (1853-1858)

Grant books for Cashel (1840-1845), Derry & Raphoe

(1818-1821), Ossory (1848-1858)

Sir William Beetham’s abstracts up to 1800

OTHER SOURCES

Military records, clerical records …

Royal Irish Constabulary / Royal Ulster Constabulary

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your-research/research-guides/ royal-irish-constabulary/

Supposedly nothing ‘online’ but Reakes, J., comp.. Ireland, The Royal Irish Constabulary 1816-1921 [database on-line] Ancestry.com

Name: Swindall, Richard Birth Date/Age: 20 Birthplace: Kerry Marriage or Comments: Y Enlisted: 1851 Film #: 856060 Page #: 158B

And …

NEWSPAPERS

Possibly the subject of another talk.

http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/historical-irish-newspapers.html

1794/6 FLAX GROWERS LISTS

The Irish Linen Board published a list of nearly 60,000 individuals in 1796. Spinning wheels were awarded based on the number of acres planted. People who planted one acre were awarded 4 spinning wheels and those growing 5 acres were awarded a loom.

Donegal and Tyrone had the highest number of awards.

Dublin and Wicklow were not included in this list.

These extracts contain the name, parish and county. The barony was listed instead of the parish in a few of the records.

Also known as the Spinning Wheel list or the Flax Growers Bounty.

http://www.failteromhat.com/flax1796.php

DOG LICENCES

Dog licences were introduced into Irish law in 1865

and the first licences were issued the following year.

It cost 2 shillings per dog with an extra 6 pence in

administration costs. The licences were issued in the

same courts as held the Petty Sessions.

There are 6,041,095 records available to search on

Findmypast with more records due next year.

Name (of owner)

Address

County

Year and date of dog licence

Colour of dog

Sex of dog

Breed or type of dog

IRISH GENEALOGY WEBSITES

Family Search

www.RootsIreland.ie (Irish Family History Societies) £

IrishGenealogy.ie (Church records, civil records)

Ancestry £

FindMyPast £

National Archives of Ireland (1901, 1911 census, census search forms, Tithe Applotment Books 1823-1287, Probate Calendars) www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni

www.askaboutireland.ie Griffith’s valuation and map

www.townlands.ie

http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com http://www.from-ireland.net/research-help-wills-administrations-deeds/

Ulster Historical Foundation www.ancestryireland.com

IRISH GENEALOGY WEBSITES

Joe Petrie’s List of Free Irish Genealogy Web Sites Family Search https://familysearch.org/ - Supposedly, there

are about a half a billion records in their databases.

Family Search Community Trees http://histfam.familysearch.org/ - There are 3 Irish databases. I think that this is the most interesting site that I discovered this year.

Family Search Collections List https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list - There are 7 collections for Ireland.

FreeGenData.com http://www.freegendata.com/cgi-bin/1/search.cgi?query=Ireland - A search tool to help you locate free genealogy databases and record transcriptions on the web. For Ireland there were 992 links and for Galway, Ireland, there were 35 web site links.

KEEPING UP-TO-DATE

www.irishgenealogynews.com

www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com

AN EXAMPLE – JOHN LARKIN

Ancestry untraced, born c.1794

Married Mary Ryan

Children (from 1841 census) John, born 1827/8

Jeremiah, born 5th May 1833 at Lambeth, baptised on the 26th of May 1833 (? at St George's Chapel Bermondsey)

David, born 1834/5

Daniel, born 1838/9

Buried on the 26th of January 1840 aged 45 at St Mary in Lambeth, Surrey

John Larkin/Larkins marriage not found in Anstruther Catholic Marriage index

A blacksmith or perhaps a labourer. Mary Ryan from Munster.

AN EXAMPLE – JOHN LARKIN (C1794 –

1840) MARRIED MARY BRYAN

Family Tree on Ancestry “This page is

temporarily unavailable”. Other trees probably

derived from my own website.

Ancestry 1851 Census Crook and Billy Row,

Hamsterley ! (Between Crook and Tow Law)

White Lee colliery. Age 54, no children

FindMyPast – 2073 results

No births

17 Feb 1797, Balbriggan, Congregational, event ?

Login failures

90 marriages: 1809 – no further information

EXAMPLE – JOHN LARKIN (C1794 – 1840)

www.irishgenealogy.ie

12 – NO 2 - results

1 baptism in Dublin1790, 1 baptism in Cork 1791

www.rootsireland.ie John Larkin 1794

54 baptisms NO 3 1794 plus 2 1793, 1 1795, 1 1792

Co Longford 1794, Co. Limerick 1794, Co Kilkenny 1794

15 Marriages – 0 Mary Ryan

6 deaths - - NO

693 Griffith - NO

20 census substitute – 0

Note: rootsireland suggests Clarke as an alternative

to Larkin. Not considerd in above figures,

EXAMPLE – JOHN LARKIN (C1794 – 1840)

Tithe Applotment Books

49 results for a John Larkin

Bleakfield, Aghnameadle, Tipperary 1825

Archerstown, Aharney, Kilkenny 1830

Ballyphilips, Ballylarkin, Kilkenny 1827

Lisroyan, Bumlin, Roscommon 1825

Ash Park, Carrick, Tipperary 1834

Mantingstown, Coolagh, Kilkenny 1827

Skeghbreeda, Abbey, Clare 1827

Etc

No use unless you already know where your man

was living.

END