FindmyPast adds Irish 18th century religious censuses, and enhances Belfast and Ulster directories collection

FindmyPast has added the following 18th century Irish religious censuses, as sourced from transcriptions by Tenison Groves held at PRONI , as well as an update to its Belfast directories collection:

Ireland, 1766 Religious Census

This week's biggest new set consists of 20,505 transcriptions from the 1766 Religious Census. Although the original documents were lost when Ireland's Public Records Office was destroyed in 1922, these extensive transcripts were recorded by antiquarian and genealogist Tenison Groves prior to the fire.

From these records, you may be able to learn the name of the head of the household, the year, their religion, the parish and the county. The information recorded varies widely, because different enumerators recorded different details.

NB: Note that the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland platform provides free access to a substantially greater version of this 1766 census at https://virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/1766-religious-census

 
Ireland, Census of Protestant Householders 1740

Secondly, we've also added transcriptions of a census that was taken of Protestant householders in 1740. The 15,957 records within this new set are from parishes in the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Donegal, Down and Tyrone.

Also created by Tenison Groves, these transcriptions contain details like a name, year, barony, parish and county.


Ireland, 1775 Dissenters' Petitions

This week's third and final new set is a collection of historic petition records. It contains approximately 4,000 names, of people who protested the Church of Ireland's sacramental tests in 1775. The petitions consist of dissenters' names categorized by parish, congregation, town, neighbourhood, or, in one case, barony.

Occasionally, members of the Established Church also signed the petitions. The lists typically specify whether signatories were dissenters or Established Church members. In cases where no denomination is indicated, the list contained names of both dissenters and Established Church members without differentiation.

While available for all Northern Ireland counties except Fermanagh, these records are most extensive for areas in Counties Antrim and Down.


Belfast & Ulster Directories

In addition to the three brand new Irish record sets, we've also made a significant update to an existing Irish collection. We added 951,127 Belfast and Ulster directory records, with both transcriptions and original images available for you to explore.

These new additions span 1831 to 1900, and contain over 900,000 names. With almost 70 years of history covered, they offer a detailed glimpse into what the North of Ireland was like in the 19th century.

Comment: There's no source cited for the additional directory records, but the year range suggests that these too may be from PRONI.  

For further details visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/protestant-householders-dissenters-petitions

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.