FindMyPast Ireland has launched the dog licence registers of the Petty Sessions courts. They've not been available online before, so they represent a brand new source for many Irish family historians.
The registers hold around quarter of a million entries per year from the introduction of doc licensing in 1866. That's a hell of a lot of dogs!
Dating from 1866 to 1913, this first instalment contains over 550,000 records from counties Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary and Wicklow. Further instalments will follow over the coming months.
The details included in the dog licence entry are similar to those found on modern dog licences: the owner’s name and address, details regarding the sex and physical appearance of the dog. Findmypast Ireland has transcribed the name, address and county of the dog-owner, with further information such as the dog’s breed, colour and sex included in the images.
Available on the Irish collection of FindMyPast Ireland, these records are also available via a World Subscription with FindMyPast.com, FindMyPast.com.au and findmypast.co.uk.