A crucial genealogical resource for 18th century Ireland
While not a formal census, the 1766 religious census was the first large-scale population-survey of Ireland, it 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.
The 1766 census returns were transferred to the Public Record Office in 1870, and were stored in Bay 5O, on shelves 208 and 209. They remained there until 30 June 1922 when the vast majority of the returns were destroyed in the destruction of the Public Record Office.
The 1766 census returns were transferred to the Public Record Office in 1870, and were stored in Bay 5O, on shelves 208 and 209. They remained there until 30 June 1922 when the vast majority of the returns were destroyed in the destruction of the Public Record Office.
Remarkably, the National Archives holds fifty-nine original items which survived the catastrophe of 1922 – fifty-seven census returns, the summary sheet for Cashel and Emly diocese, and a list of priests and friars in the Union of Tipperary. These are the only survivors from this entire collection in the Public Record Office of Ireland. They show no sign of fire damage, so perhaps a researcher had not finished working on them when closing time came, they were held overnight in the Strong Room and so escaped the battle, explosion and fire which destroyed the rest of the census. Among these survivors are census returns for Armagh, and Cashel and Emly dioceses, Rathbarry and Ringrone parishes in County Cork, and Killoteran parish in County Waterford.
Before the fire of 1922, many genealogists and local historians made copies of parts of the 1766 census. These copies are held in the National Archives, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Taken together, copies, surviving originals and abstracts cover over half of Ireland – more than 50,000 names in total! They are all freely available in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, in the 1766 Religious Census of Ireland Gold Seam.