TIME LINE FOR Irish RECORDS |
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| 1500-1600 | Close Rolls, Patent Rolls | |
| 1635-37 | Strafford's Survey1500-1600 | |
| Charles I was thus responsible for the ensuing Civil War. This was followed by the rule of Cromwell and the Commonwealth and, in 1690, war with France. In Ireland Thomas Wentworth , Earl of Strafford, became Lord Deputy and new Bishops were appointed which led to a severe anti-Presbyterian measures. In 1634 contact was made with the Massachusetts settlers and the subsequent response encouraged them to go to new lands and enjoy religous freedom. | ||
| 1654 | The Civil Survey | |
| 1654-1657 | Down Survey | |
| 1650-1690 | Survey & Distribution | |
| 1659 | Census of Ireland Compiled by Sir William Petty The Census of Ireland has been edited by Seamus Pender and published, with supplementary material on the Poll Money Ordinance (1660-1661), by the Irish Manuscripts Commission (1959). | |
| 1708 + | Registry of Deeds | |
| Emigration was very heavy in the early 1770s but came to a halt in the summer of 1775 with the firing of Lexington and Concord and was virtually at a standstill for the next eight years restarting in August 1783. | ||
| Emigrants therefore tended to be younger people who went via England. There were regular and unrecorded movements from Ireland, through the ports of Londonderry, Portrush, Larne, Belfast, Portpatrick, Warrenpoint, Dundalk, and Drogheda to Glasgow, Liverpool, Fleetwood, Ardrossan, Greenock, London. From Dublin, Cork, Wexford, Waterford, the main ports were Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, Plymouth. | ||
| It was in the 18th century that there were positive moves to encourage settlement by land speculators and governments alike in lands as far apart as South Carolina where land was provided to immigrants, and recruitment for Prince Edward Island in Canada. Even as late as 1888 there were Emigration agents in most towns in Ulster. | ||
| 1823-1838 | Tithe Applotment Books | |
| 1824-1848 | Ordnance Survey Memoirs | |
| 1824-1848 | Ordnance Survey | |
| 1821 | Census | |
| 1831 | Census | |
| 1841 | Census | |
| 1845 | Church of Ireland registration of marriages | |
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| 1848-1864 | Perambulation Books (Town, House and Field Books) | |
| 1848-1864 | Griffith Valuation Books or (PVT) Primary Valuation of Tenements | |
| 1851 | Census | |
| 1858 | Encumbered Estates Act | |
| 1864 | Civil Registration | |
| 1876 | Return of Land Owners | |
| 1901 | Census
The only surviving comprehensive returns for Ireland are the 1901 and 1911 census. Only fragments of the 1851 census and earlier returns survived the fire in the Pubic Record Office in 1922. The 1861 and 1871 census were completely destroyed on government orders |
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| 1908 | Old Age Pensions | |
| 1911 | Census | |
| 1937 | Folk Lore Commission Records | |
Church Records can be divided into three categories: Catholic, Presbyterian and the Church of Ireland. Church records consist of baptisms and marriages. Catholic parishes began recording baptisms and marriages in the 1840s and 1850s. Catholic records are written in Latin or English. Never in Gaelic. LDS has baptism and marriage registers available for rental on microfilm. Presbyterian records began being recorded around the same time as Catholic records. Presbyterian records are available through the parish, the Presbyterian Historical Society and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Church records for the Church of Ireland began as early as 1634. These records consist of baptisms, marriages and sometimes include burials. These records were written in English and were organized by Diocesan parish. By 1869, these records were declared property of the State. In June 1922, the church records for the Church of Ireland were destroyed in a fire. However, many of the Diocesan parishes retained copies of their records. The National Archives of Ireland has a catalog of the records that survived the fire.
| There are four provinces in Ireland, Ulster (9 counties), Connacht (5 counties), Munster (6 counties) and Leinster (12 counties). County Londonderry is located in the Ulster Province and is one of six counties that make us North Ireland, Great Britain. | |
| For reference it is also important to understand how counties in North Ireland have been divided up into Administrative Divisions throughout history. | |
| Until the end of the nineteenth century, county Londonderry was subdivided into baronies. Barony names may offer some value to the genealogical researcher but in most cases the Poor Law Union or Civil Parish name is of most value. | |
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Poor
Law Union
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In the 1830's workhouses, or Poor Law Unions, were set up to try to deal with the most destitute in the county. They became the bases of the registration districts used for state records of births, marriages and deaths. |
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Civil
Parishes
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Civil Parishes were the original units of administration of the medieval church in Ireland and were used right up to the end of the nineteenth century for local and central government. Because of this, they are extremely important for Irish genealogy, providing, for example, the only means of connecting a placename to the Roman Catholic records which cover it. |
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Townlands
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Church of Ireland parish registers generally consist of baptis, marriage, and burial registers. These registers start much earlier than the Roman Catholic ones, with some Kildare registers going back as far as the late 1700's. The townland was and is the slest officially recognised geographical unit in rural Ireland, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand. Townsland Indexes were kept and recorded throughout the 1800's. |
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