Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Any mills or millers in your family's history?

The Ulster Historical Foundation has added the Old Mills of Ireland to its members-only database.

This listing of the old mills of Ireland has been prepared from 19th-century Valuation Office documents in Dublin and from the equivalent records in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The information is principally from the 1830s to the 1850s and there is a separate section for each of the 32 counties. Details for each county have been listed and indexed and there are also introductory notes to the Valuation Office records themselves.

The information on each mill includes:
  • the name of the townland in which each mill was situated
  • the name of the proprietor or the miller who toiled there at this period
  • the buildings associated with each milling complex (including dimensions)
Many entries also include details of the machinery at the mill ie dimensions of the water wheel.

First published in a series of four volumes, this Guide to the Mills of Ireland was researched and created by William E Hogg of Dalkey, Co Dublin, and has obvious value to both genealogists and those interested in the technological/industrial advances of 19th-century Ireland.

The information is accessible via the Members' Area of the Ulster Historical Foundation's website, AncestryIreland. Members should login and then follow the link to the Members' Area.