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| Every genealogist knows you sometimes have to make use of incomplete or partial records. Although full government censuses were taken of the whole island in 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 1901, and 1911. The first four, for 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851, were largely destroyed in 1922, in the fire at the Public Record Office; surviving fragments are detailed under the county source-lists. Those for 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891 were completely destroyed earlier, by order of the government. However records do exists that can act as a census substitute for pre-1901. Details on these are listed below.
If anyone has any census substitutes transcriptions tucked away in their notes please send them to me at mourneminers@optonline.net and I will add them to the site so that others might benefit from them. They don’t have to be complete – you might just have noted down your own family – but it may be enough information to point others in the right direction. |
1864-1879
Vaccination Records | Vaccination was compulsory in 1862 and those for the Kilkeel area are available. They are to be found in the Board of Guardian records in PRONI. A partial transcription is on this site. | 1876
County Down Land Deeds | An alphabetical list of individuals owned one or more acres of land in Co. Down, Ireland, the latter part of the 1870s. Some owned property in Co. Down but lived elsewhere. Of course, many more Irish owned less than one acre, or none at all, and their names would not appear on this list. Available on this site. | 1848 - 1864
Griffiths Valuations | In order to produce the accurate information necessary for local taxation, the Tenement Act of 1842 provided for a uniform valuation of all property in Ireland, to be based on the productive capacity of land and the potential rent of buildings. The man appointed Commissioner of Valuation was Richard Griffith, a Dublin geologist, and the results of his great survey, the Primary Valuation of Ireland, were published between 1848 and 1864. His work known as "Griffiths Valuation" is the best-known Irish census-substitute. You can search for your family here and the parish of Anhaderg (1863) is available on this site. An index to Griffith's Valuation is available for Free at
www.ulsterancestry.com/research.html | 1847 - 1851
Newry Passenger Lists | The Newry Passenger Lists provided by Brigitte Marmion provides a "census substitute" If people of the same last name left on the same ship on the same day we can safely assume they were all family and if you look at the ages you can determine what place they held in that family. | 1803
Agricultural Census for Co. Down | The background to the 1803 agricultural census is explained in Ian Maxwell's book "Researching Down Ancestors" published by the Ulster Historical Foundation in 2004.
The returns for the agricultural census of 1803 are included in the Londonderry Papers of the 1st Marquess, held in PRONI. The PRONI reference for the census returns is D/654/A2/1–37A–C. Michael McCartan has kindly made available copies of the 1803 Agricultural Census for Drumgooland Parish.
Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10, Page 11 More extracts from the census are coming soon. | 1691-1718
Home Towns Of Ulster Families | Since the ministers of dissenting congregations had little or no legal standing during the earliest years of the emigration to New England their records of births, marriages and death do not appear to have been preserved, except in isolated cases. But the records of presbytery and synod were kept with great care, and the latter have been printed to the year 1820. They give the name of the ruling elder in each congregation for the year of the general synod, and often the names of commissioners sent to the synod to represent local interests. Names of witnesses in cases which came before the synod also help to establish the home towns of Presbyterian families. Names of Ulster towns are usually given here as they are spelled in the records.  | | Directories of Down | | 1910 | Ulster Towns Directory | | 1886 | Bassetts Directory of Dromara Parish and Loughbrickland | | 1856 | Slaters Commercial Directory Of Kilkeel and Neighbourhood | | 1852 | Newry Merchants Directory | | 1846 | Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland - Ulster | | 1819 | Directory of Banbridge | Tithe Records
The Composition Act of 1823 specified that tithes due to the Established Church, the Church of Ireland, which had hitherto been payable in kind, should now be paid in money. As a result, it was necessary to carry out a valuation of the entire country, civil parish by civil parish, to determine how much would be payable by each landholder. This was done over the ensuing 15 years, up to the abolition of tithes in 1838. Microfilm copies of the Tithe Books are available in the National Archives and the National Library. Those for Down are available at PRONI and microfilm copies of the Books are also available via the LDS Church. 1600s-1900s Freeholders & Voters Lists
Freeholders' records are lists of people entitled to vote, or of people who voted, at elections. A freeholder was a man who owned his land outright (in fee) or who held it by lease which could be for one or more lives (for example, his own life or for the lives of other people named in the lease). From 1727 to 1793 only Protestants with a freehold worth at least 40 shillings a year were legally permitted to vote. Between 1793 and 1829 both Protestants and Catholics with 40 shilling freeholds could vote, but in 1829 the franchise level was increased to 10 pounds, so 40 shilling freeholders were no longer allowed to vote. This last measure increased the influence of landlords by effectively confining membership of Parliament to the propertied or monied classes. PRONI have digitized and made this information available on-line here. Munster Rolls
Munster Rolls are lists of large landlords in Ulster, and the names of the able-bodied men that they could assemble to fight if the need arose. They are arranged by county, and by district within the county but a trip to PRONI is required to access the information. 1796 Flax Grants
The Flax Growers List also known as the Spinning Wheel Premium was compiled in 1796 by the Irish Linen Board and will soon be available on this site. 1766 Religious Census of Ireland
The whole of the original set of returns was lost in the Four Courts fire in Dublin in 1922; fortunately a good many transcripts survive. Ancestry.com have an on-line index that covers over 11,000 heads of households, giving their names, parish and religion. Thanks to the transcribing efforts of Tenison Groves, and the microfilming programme of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints some of these records are available to use. Many other scraps of census material exist in the National Library but are not avail to people overseas. The state of the extracts was haphazard and none appeared to be indexed, they are arranged by Parish or Townland. Some number the children or other members of the household. Some only give `widow' or `Mr'. Occasionally an entry only had a surname. The index reads: SURNAME OF HEAD OF HOUSE CHRISTIAN NAME RELIGION -i.e. P = Protestant; C= Catholic D = Dissenter PARISH DIOCESE TOWNLAND COUNTY COMMENTS There is no further detail in the original documents. These can be viewed via the LDS Family History Centre's Microfilm Ordering system. The index was compiled from LDS FILMS 100173, and 100220; the majority of the places covered are in Northern Ireland. Source: ancestry.com Other Useful Census-Substitute Records This was compiled by Sir William Petty and records the names of persons with title to land (tituladoes), the total numbers of English and Irish living in each townland, and the principal Irish names in each barony. The subsidy Roll lists the nobility, clergy and laity who paid a grant in aid to the King. They supply name and parish, and, sometimes, amount paid and occupation. The Hearth Tax was levied on the basis of the number of hearths in each house; these Rolls list the householders' names, as well as this number. Hearth tax records they provide an indication of the size of each assessed house at the time. The numbers of hearths are generally proportional to the size of the house. No known source of documentation for County Down available. 1669: Newry & Mourne Poll Tax Returns. PRONI T1046 1708: Householders in Downpatrick town. The City of Downe, R. E Parkinson 1720: Down and Antrim landed gentry RIA 24 k 19 1722-1970: Records of Southwell Charity School Downpatrick. PRONI D/2664. 1740: Protestant Householders (Partial). PRONI T.808/15258 1766: Kilbroney, Seapatrick, Inch, Shankill. NLI Ms 4173 1789: "Deputy Court Cheque Book" (votes cast). PRONI D.654/A3/1B 1796: Spinning-Wheel Premium List 1798: Persons who suffered losses in the 1798 rebellion. Propertied classes only. NLI I 94107 1799-1800: Militia Pay Lists and Muster Rolls. PRONI T.1115/4A C 1815-1846: Downpatrick electors. NLI Ms 7235 1821: Some extracts. NAI Thrift Abstracts. 1837: Valuation of Newry town (heads of households). Parliamentary Papers 1837, Reports from Committees, Vol. II (1), Appendix G 1837: Marksmen (illiterate voters) in parliamentary boroughs: Newry and Downpatrick. Parliamentary Papers 1837, Reports from Committees, Vol. II (i), Appendix A 1841-1861: Religious censuses: Aghaderg. RCB Library Ms 65 1851: Some extracts. NAI Thrift Abstracts. 1851: Presbyterians only: Loughinisland Family Links, Vol. 1 Nos 5 & 7, 1982/83 1852: Poll Book (votes cast). Incomplete. PRONI D.671/02/5 6 D.671/02/7 8; LDS film 993158 1861: Loughinisland Presbyterians only. Family Links, Vol. 1 Nos 5 & 7, 1982/83
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