A crucial genealogical resource for 18th century Ireland
While not a formal census, the Religious Census of 1766 stands out as a crucial genealogical resource for researchers interested in Ireland’s historical demographics.
Authorised by the Irish House of Lords on March 5th, 1766, it tasked Archbishops and Bishops with compiling lists of families in their parishes, distinguishing between Protestant and Roman Catholic heads of households. While some parishes provided detailed names, others only submitted statistical data on the number of each denomination.
This ambitious initiative aimed to catalogue every householder across Ireland, but not all parishes complied fully. Despite this, the census remains one of the richest sources for understanding 18th-century Ireland, especially before the official census series began in 1813.
Surviving documents
Although most original returns were lost by fire in 1922, 59 items from eight counties survived. These documents have been conserved and digitised and are now accessible in the Reading Room and online through our partnership with the Virtual Records Treasury of Ireland.