Thursday 29 August 2013

FMP.ie releases 2.5m Petty Sessions Court Records

Another 2.5 million Petty Session court register entries dating from 1851 to 1913 have been added to FindMyPast Ireland.

This latest batch features 52 petty session courts making their first entrance to the online collection. They include nine courts in Galway, eight in Roscommon, seven each in Westmeath and Limerick, four each in Donegal and Waterford, two each for Tipperary, Cork, Carlow and Kilkenny and one each for counties Mayo, Meath, Sligo, Wexford and Wicklow.

A further seven courts have been supplemented with records from additional years.

FindMyPast's Petty Sessions Court Registers collection now holds more than 15 million records and tops up the site's overall record count to more than 70 million.

The variety of cases heard in the Petty Sessions Court gives a real flavour for life in Ireland at the time. Runaway servants, shebeens and trespassing livestock are just a taste of the misdemeanors that can be found amongst the millions of registers.

Cliona Weldon, General Manager of findmypast.ie, said 'The records of the Petty Session courts are endlessly fascinating and that is why we continue to top up this resource with more great family history records. It is always interesting to find out what your forefathers did to find themselves in front of a magistrate!'

The collection is also available as part of a World Subscription via FindMyPast USA, FindMyPast Australia/NZ and FindMyPast UK.