Three more parish returns found for 1766 Religious Census of Ireland

I had a quick Twitter exchange earlier today with Brian Gurrin (@BrianGurrin), following a post I had made about the latest Family Tree magazine, in which I have written about the new Virtual Records Treasury - you can read a sample of it at https://www.family-tree.co.uk/how-to-guides/virtual-record-treasury-of-ireland-a-look-at-the-1766-religious-census/, which looks at the 1766 Religious Census of Ireland.

Brian has just advised of a great wee find earlier today - three more parish returns have been identified from the 1766 census at PRONI in Belfast, all of them from north Wexford, near Gorey, with one of them being Ballycanew (will update when I get the other two names!). Although the census returns are purely statistical, as is the case with some of the surviving census material, it is still a testimony to the futility of assuming that when people say a record series is lost, that's it - there will always be someone around to prove otherwise!

A great deal of the 1766 census has been reconstructed by the Vrtual Treasury, including many parishes with returns naming individuals - you can search it at https://virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/1766-religious-census

Update: The returns are for Kiltennel (https://virtualtreasury.ie/item?isadgReferenceCode=PROI%20PARL%2088%2F30%2F5%2F81%2F1%2F1316), Ballycannew (https://virtualtreasury.ie/item?isadgReferenceCode=PROI%20PARL%2088%2F30%2F5%2F81%2F1%2F1290) and Gorey (https://virtualtreasury.ie/item?isadgReferenceCode=PROI%20PARL%2088%2F30%2F5%2F81%2F1%2F1313), all in north Wexford. The information was originally transcribed/extracted by Tennison Groves.

With thanks again to Brian!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.