Updated - Northern Irish tithe records available again on PRONI website

Just a quick heads up that for the last two days I have been having problems in accessing Northern Irish tithe applotment books via the eCatalogue on the PRONI website (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/search-pronis-ecatalogue). One of my Pharos students has also commented that he is unable to gain access. I have contacted the archive, hopefully they will be accessible again soon. I have also checked the ED/1 National Education Commisioners Grant Aid Application records, and am having the same problem.

In the meantime, some of the northern tithe applotment records have been indexed online at Ancestry's Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1805-1837 collection, although this is incomplete and only provides names, townlands, parishes and counties of residence, with no information on the extent of the land held, valuation or tithe payment due.

UPDATE 3 May: The records are now accessible once again, A big thanks to PRONI for resolving this so quickly after the Bank Holiday weekend. 

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.

TheGenealogist doubles the number of English Tithe Maps

Having brought news from Northern Ireland on tithes records, it seems only fair to bring some from England also! From TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

TheGenealogist Doubles the number of Tithe Maps on Map Explorer™

See Ancestors’ land or property recorded on georeferenced Tithe Maps

TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ which can help researchers find an ancestor’s land and view how the landscape changed over time has been augmented by the addition of georeferenced Tithe Maps for Cheshire, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Staffordshire and Yorkshire West Riding.

Total number of maps in this release is 3,655
Total number of Tithe maps in Map Explorer™ is now 6,972
Map Explorer™ has over four million viewable records indicated by Map Pins
TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ displays maps for historical periods up to the modern day.


Corfe Castle mapped over the years

Map Explorer™ now features various colour and black and white Tithe maps as well as modern map base layers and historical maps which are all georeferenced to allow the user the ability to see how places change over the years. Map Explorer™ is a useful tool for browsing an ancestor’s area to find other plots that they owned or occupied, while TheGenealogist’s Master Search can be used to look for ancestors’ plots across the tithe records and then view them on Map Explorer™.

The addition to Map Explorer™ this week of the black and white tithe maps for Cheshire, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Staffordshire and Yorkshire West Riding linked to the apportionment books will enable researchers to discover ancestors who both owned or occupied property between 1837 and the 1850s, with some additional altered apportionments in later years when property was sold or divided. The records allow TheGenealogist’s Diamond subscribers to find details of the plots, the owners of the land, as well as the occupiers at the time of the survey while also identifying the actual plots on the maps. Tithes usefully record all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of small plots such as a homestead or a cottage.

Map Explorer™ now features colour tithe maps for the counties of Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Rutland, Surrey, Westmorland, the City of York as well as North and East Ridings of Yorkshire plus black and white maps for Berkshire, Cambridge, Cheshire, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire West Riding.

See our article: Tithe Maps on Map Explorer reveal more about the place ancestors lived and worked
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/tithe-records-on-the-map-explorer-reveal-more-about-the-places-our-ancestors-lived-and-worked-1302/

Find out more at TheGenealogist.co.uk/maps/

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts August 31st - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

TheGenealogist adds extra tithe maps to Map Explorer

From TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

TheGenealogist adds extra tithe maps to Map Explorer™

Powerful new map tool now helps trace ancestors land or property with further additions of Tithe Maps

TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ which can help researchers find an ancestor’s property and watch the landscape change over time has now been enhanced by the addition of georeferenced black and white Tithe Maps for Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire.

• Total number of maps in this release is 927
• Total number of Tithe maps in Map Explorer™ is 3,317
• Map Explorer™ has over two million selectable records shown using Map Pins

Joining the georeferenced Lloyd George Data Layer, Headstones, War Memorials, and colour Tithe Maps for a number of counties, the new additions to the ever-expanding Map Explorer™ allow researchers to trace property from Victorian times to the modern era.

TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ displays maps for historical periods up to the modern day.
Various colour and black and white Tithe maps have now been added to this innovative tool and linked to the apportionment books, enabling researchers to locate where their ancestors lived or worked.

The addition to the Map Explorer™ of the black and white tithe maps for Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire linked to the apportionment books will enable researchers to find the details of the plots, their owners and their occupiers at the time that the survey was taken in Victorian times while also identifying the plots on the maps. By using the Map Explorer™ controls the researcher can then see how the landscape changes over time with the aid of the georeferenced historical and modern map layers. Tithe maps and records were drawn up from 1836 to the 1850s, with additional altered apportionments in later years when property was sold or divided. Tithes usefully record all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of small plots such as a homestead or a cottage.

The Map Explorer™ now features colour tithe maps for the counties of Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Rutland, Surrey, Westmorland, the City of York as well as North and East Ridings of Yorkshire plus black and white maps for Berkshire, Cambridge, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire.

See our article: Tithe Maps on Map Explorer
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/tithe-records-on-map-explorer-1255/

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts June 8th - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is out shortly, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Latest Irish additions to FamilySearch

The following additions to Irish records collections have been made this week on FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org):

Ireland, Ashe's Limerick and Clare Directory, 1891-1892 (11,559 records added)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/3736264
The Directory of the City of Limerick & County Clare, 1891-1892, was published by H. & E. Ashe and is one of the few directories for Limerick City and County Clare that was published before the end of the 19th Century. The directory includes a brief history of the city, business listings, and an extensive street directory of the city's residents. All the major towns and villages in Limerick are covered, with details of the professionals, large farmers, traders, merchants, and gentlemen. This collection was provided in coordination with FindMyPast.

Ireland, T. George H. Green, Index to the Marriage License Bonds of the Diocese of Cloyne, 1630-1800; 1899-1900 (15,316 records added)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/3736257
This collection is an index of marriage license bonds for Counties Cork and Ross created by Herbert Webb Gillman from 1896-1898. It was later added to by Thomas George Hennis Green until the Public Record Office in Dublin was destroyed in 1922. This publication is the only surviving index for these records. This collection was provided in coordination with FindMyPast.

Northern Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1822-1837 (496 records added)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2729531
Tithe Applotment books for Northern Ireland are something of land survey taken by Church of Ireland in order to determine the value of land and possible corresponding tithe. The records span 1822-1837 and were originally filmed at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. These records are beneficial to researchers because they are somewhat like a pre-famine census.

Comment: Someone is a bit geographically confused, because although the majority of records in the Northern Irish tithes records set are from what is now Northern ireland, I'm getting returns from Cork, Mayo and Donegal in the mix! Confusingly, one of the search boxes is for birthplace - ignore that (it's meaningless), use the Any box to input place.

This is only an index, and there is no actual valuation information, but the Northern Irish returns are available through the catalogue on PRONI (see https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/2019/11/proni-uploads-digitised-ni-tithe-books.html) and those for the south at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp.

For further releases on FamilySearch this week (including significant updates to Isle of Wight and Lincolnshire parish records in England) visit https://media.familysearch.org/new-free-historical-records-on-familysearch-week-of-27-april-2020/.

Chris

My next 5 week Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts May 4th - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is out shortly, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

TheGenealogist releases Essex tithe maps

From TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

Changing times in the latest map release from TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist has released the Colour Tithe Maps for Essex with full integration with its MapExplorer™. This release allows us to see the area in West Ham, Essex on which the ExCel centre now stands and to discover the changes from Victorian pasture land, to dock complex then Exhibition venue and now to the Nightingale Hospital as the Covid-19 emergency builds.

This versatile tool can give the family history researcher a fantastic insight into what our ancestors’ city, town or village looked like over a number of periods and can also help them to find an ancestor’s property. With the addition of georeferenced Colour Tithe Maps. TheGenealogist has also today released colour tithe maps for Essex – you can search these as normal or browse them on Map Explorer™.

Joining the georeferenced Lloyd George Data Layer, Headstones and War Memorials, the Colour Tithe Maps are an important enhancement of the ever-expanding Map Explorer™.

• The Map Explorer™ displays maps for historical periods up to the modern day.
• Colour Tithe maps bring the early Victorian era to this innovative tool
• Plots on the maps are linked to the apportionment books, enabling researchers to locate where their ancestors lived or worked

TheGenealogist has linked these highly detailed Tithe maps to the apportionment book records so providing researchers with the details of the plots, their owners and their occupiers at the time of the early Victorian survey. The coverage ranges from large estate owners to ordinary people occupying small plots such as a homestead or a cottage. Colour Tithe Maps make it easier for the researcher to understand the terrain as the streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, houses and trees are often highlighted in different colours.

TheGenealogist’s Colour Tithe Maps now cover the counties of Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Rutland, Surrey, Westmorland, the City, North and East Ridings of Yorkshire along with the new addition this week of Essex.

Subscribers to TheGenealogist’s Diamond membership can now view the latest colour or grayscale maps when using the Tithe & Landowner records.

TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™ has been developed to view these georeferenced historic maps overlaid on top of modern background maps including those from Ordnance Survey and Bing Street maps, as well as a satellite view. With the Map Explorer™, you can search for an ancestor's property, discovering its site, even if the road has changed or is no longer there.

Alternatively, using the Master Search on TheGenealogist, having found your forebear listed in the Tithe Records you can click through to the Map Explorer™ which will also show War Memorials or cemeteries on the various maps.

Read TheGenealogist’s article here:
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/essex-tithe-maps-reveal-ever-changing-landscape-1239/

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

PRONI's digitised Northern Irish tithe books and school grant aid records

Just a reminder of some records recently added to PRONI, if you are now stuck at home and have time to dive into a new Northern Irish resource! 

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni) has initiated a major evolution with its online catalogue, with the release of two important digitised record collections for the six northern counties now constituted as Northern Ireland (Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Londonderry). The collections are the Northern Ireland Tithe Applotment Books 1823-1837 (FIN/5/A), and the National Education Commisioners Grant Aid Applications (ED/1).

Tithe Applotment Books

The tithe applotment books can now be downloaded for each parish.

i) From the home page at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni, click on eCatalogue.
ii) Click on Search PRONI's eCatalogue
iii) Scroll down and click on the green Search the eCatalogue button.
iv) On the top right of the catalogue search screen, click Browse.
v) Type in FIN/5/A and click on Search.
vi) On the results page, which states the following, go to the second option:

vii) If you click on the word More in the Title/Description column, you will gtet a short summary describing what the tithe records are.
viii) If you instead click on the blue PRONI reference FIN/5/A link in the first column, you will now be taken to a more detailed listing for each parish in alphabetical order.

ix) The View link at the end column allows you to download a hefty PDF file for the relevant parish. When you click on it you will first be asked to agree to a copyright statement:

Then you will be asked if you wish to save the relevant PDF file or to open it. Upon completion, this is the sort of thing you will then see:

COMMENT: Some of the files are quite large, but the quality of the digitisation is superb. Note that the records cannot be keyword searched - you'll have to go into them the good oul' fashioned way!

I have downloaded a couple of parishes, but one parish of interest, Islandmagee (simply noted as Island in the list) is showing as a damaged file which 'cannot be repaired'! I have notified PRONI, suspect it is just a minor teething issue.

Tithe records for the Republic of Ireland are already freely available at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie.


National Education Commissioners Grant Aid Applications

The search technique for these is similar to the above, with the results portrayed in county order over a series of files covering different periods from 1832-1899. For example, County Antrim is presented across ED/1/1 to ED/1/10, each of which subdivides further to individual schools - the ED/1/1 link, for example, leads to individual PDFs for 163 separate school applications (ED/1/1/1A to ED/1/1/164). Note that the applications are for named schools, so don't be going in looking for parish names in these.

Again, the presentation is superb, and the files with these are considerably smaller, so will open much quicker.

Have fun with the records!

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.