With the destruction of early Irish census records, the Tithe Applotment Books have become a substitute resource for genealogists. To use them properly, it’s important to understand what they included, what was exempted, and why.
What are the Irish Tithe Applotment Books?
Until 1823, tithes were a tax to support the Church of Ireland (the established state church), and were paid “in kind” – a portion of crops and other production. The Composition Act of 1823 began the requirement of paying tithes with money, and to do so, a land survey was needed.
For the survey, recorders in each parish listed the landlord, the farmer, the number of acres, and assessed the amount of tithe due. It could vary with the quality of the land, and so that quality and the types of crops produced were also often recorded. Most parishes were surveyed once between 1823 and 1838, but some parishes were surveyed twice.
Who was not Included in the Tithe Applotment Books?
Tithes were assessed on farmers, but pastureland was exempt. Therefore, those raising wheat, oats or potatoes would likely be listed, but those raising only sheep would not. The type of agricultural produce that was taxed could vary from parish to parish, which complicates matters more.
Towns were not tithed, and glebe lands (owned by clergymen) and granges (old monastery land from before the Reformation) were also exempt.
The Tithe Applotment Books, therefore, are nowhere near a full census substitute – any landless laborer, town-dweller, Church of Ireland clergyman, or any of their family members would not be listed. In spite of that, the Tithe Applotment Books list many of the poorer classes who would not be found elsewhere, and give a good idea of pre-famine Ireland.
The Tithe War and Tithe Defaulters Lists
Because people were required to support the Church of Ireland even if they were Catholic or Presbyterian, there was great opposition to the tithe system. Throughout Ireland, but especially in the provinces of Munster and Leinster, people carried out a “tithe war” and defaulted on their tithe payments. More than half the tithes due in 22 counties had not been paid by 1833.
This created a financial hardship for some Church of Ireland clergymen, and they could apply for relief. To do so, they had to detail the situation in their parish and include the names of the people who refused to pay. The surviving Tithe Defaulters lists include approximately 30,000 names, with about 10,000 each in Kilkenny and Tipperary, and another 2,000 each in Cork, Waterford, and Wexford.
How to Use the Irish Tithe Applotment Books
If a parish is not included in the Tithe Books, look for reasons why not. Was it originally part of a larger parish? Was it mostly exempt lands? While some researchers may think that a parish "got missed,” there is usually a reasonable explanation.
Genealogists should be aware that with only a name and no relationships to identify a person, claiming ancestors through the Tithe Books is only an educated guess. But circumstantial evidence can be corroborated through other resources, and this may be the clue that is needed.
Where to Find Irish Tithe Records
The Tithe Applotment Books and Tithe Defaulters Lists are available in Dublin at the National Archives of Ireland, and the records for the Ulster counties are also available at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. Individual county libraries may also have copies of locally-related books.
Online access to the records varies. Individual parishes are slowly appearing on the internet for free. County Clare, for example, has indexed transcriptions for the entire county. An internet search for “tithe applotment books” and the county name will show if anything is available. These transcriptions are usually just names and notes, however, and genealogists will need to look at the full record for information on the acreage.
Fee-based genealogy sites are remarkably light on coverage of the Tithe records:
- Ancestry.com and its sister site, Genealogy.com, carry the Tithe Applotment Books only for the six counties in Northern Ireland (Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone).
- IrishOrigins.com has a searchable Tithe Defaulters list, but not a transcription of the actual books.
If a trip to Dublin is not possible for Republic of Ireland ancestors, microfilms of the records are also available through local LDS Family History Centers for a small fee.
To trace Irish ancestors a few years later, read What is Griffith’s Valuation.
Sources:
- Ancestry.com website
- Grenham, John. Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, Gill & Macmillan, 2006.
- IrishOrigins website
- Irvine, Sherry. “Tithe Records of Ireland.” Ancestry.com, 18 May 2004.
- National Archives of Ireland
Jennifer Jensen - Jennifer Jensen is an Indiana writer just returned from a lovely few years in County Cork, Ireland. She has been the Feature Writer for ...
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