Tuesday 9 July 2013

The Irish in Liverpool, 1767 – a free resource

Every now and again a little bit of gold falls into my Inbox! On this occasion, it's come via Colin of Liverpool.

It's a fantastic new online resource for those whose ancestors found themselves in Liverpool in 1767 (or surrounding district) and were recorded in the Papist Returns, one of a series of polls of known or reputed Roman Catholics ordered by the British Parliament between 1680 and 1781.

Duly returned to the House of Lords, the documents were retained in the Parliamentary Archives.

In most of these polls, individual names were not recorded, but there are several examples of those taken in 1767 when much more than names were collected. Liverpool was one such. In addition to full names, typically of all family members, the returns recorded ages and occupations, and, in some instances, length of tenure at the particular address and sometimes even place of origin. Many of these Roman Catholics would have been Irish, whether they are recorded as such or not.

The 2,000-odd entries in the Liverpool returns have been transcribed by the otherwise anonymous Blue70, a member of the Liverpool & South West Lancs Genealogy Forum and placed on a dedicated website for free access (click image).

Big round of applause to Blue70. Great work.