The Tithe Applotment Books: Search tips

You can search this site in two ways: by name of individual, or by location. Remember, the less information you put in, the more numerous the results.

Person search

It is important to remember that the names on this site have been transcribed as they were written into the Tithe Applotment Books. We have not corrected spellings. Some names are illegible, or appear on a damaged page. You may, therefore, have to try a number of strategies to find the person you seek.

Enter forename and surname of the individual you seek in the relevant boxes. Enter the county they lived in. If you know the townland or civil parish where the person lived, enter that in the relevant box.

Surnames

If you are unsure of the spelling of the person's name, you can use wildcard characters. Use an asterisk (*) to represent letters of which you are not sure, eg M*Gee will bring up McGee, MacGee and Magee.

Names that begin with O as a prefix, like O'Brien, can be transcribed as O'Brien, O Brien or Obrien. Entering any of these will bring up all the variations. Names that begin with Mc or Mac as a prefix, like McCarthy, can be transcribed as McCarthy, MacCarthy, Mc Carthy or Mac Carthy. Entering any of these will bring up all the variations.

Browsing

You can also browse this site by location. Go to the Browse page, choose a county, then a civil parish, then a townland, and you will get all of the surnames in households in that townland. You can then click through to the Search Results page and access the image of the page for that townland.

The Browse facility is very useful for looking at whole townlands or parishes, and getting information about sizes of landholdings, and surnames and forenames which existed in pre-Famine Ireland.