Northern Ireland's Tithe Applotment Books go online

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has released its newly digitised collection of Tithe Applotment Books online. They've been a long time coming to a screen near you, but it's good to now have TABs for the entire island readily accessible to family historians and other researchers. Many will be able to trace their ancestors back a couple of decades or even more prior to Griffith's Valuation.

Townlands of Carran and Crew, Errigal Keerogue, Co. Tyrone.
Click/tap to open enlarged view of sample page

The books, which date from c1820 to c1840, can be viewed, free of charge, on PRONI's e-catalogue (see step by step below). They are catalogued alphabetically by parish name and can be searched at townland level within each parish pdf. They are not indexed by householder's name.

I've only had a chance to look at a couple of parishes so far, and I'm pleased to say the scanning quality is very good. The only thing you need to watch is the size of the pdf downloads. The two I opened were large: 63Mb and 121Mb, so not a lot of fun for those with a slow connection, but they're worth waiting for! Each page is large and you can zoom in and out to decipher the writing where needed.

To access the files, go to PRONI's e-catalogue page. Click the bright green 'Search the e-catalogue' button. On the next page, click Browse in the top right of the page, just below the PRONI logo. Then enter FIN/5 in the search box. From the landing page, FIN/5/A is probably the best option for most researchers, but look around the other 22 options, too, in case there's a file dedicated to your parish of interest. From FIN/5/A you'll find you have the option of 317 'digital view' files, arranged alphabetically by parish. Use the Previous and Next buttons below to select those you want to view. (These instructions are for a PC, not a mobile phone.)

For information about the Tithe Applotment Books and their value to genealogists, see my website Irish Genealogy Toolkit.

I imagine PRONI's e-catalogue will take a heavy bashing in the next few days!

Also released online today are the National Education Commissioners Grant Aid Applications collection. These files, held in ED/1, consist of 33 volumes of applications arranged by county and then by school name. They date from 1832 to 1889. They provide interesting details about the number and demographics of pupils attending local schools, and the make up and salary of teaching staff. Some teachers names are included, as are the names of the local people supporting the applications. The latter are identified as either Protestant or Roman Catholic.

To access the files, go to PRONI's e-catalogue page. Click the bright green 'Search the e-catalogue' button. On the next page, click Browse in the top right of the page, just below the PRONI logo. Then enter ED/1 in the search box. On the landing page, you can start selecting by county and then, within your chosen file, select the school you want to view. The pdf downloads for individual schools are mostly about four to six MB.

NOTE: Other online releases from PRONI today: Hogg photographs (LA/7) and Northern Ireland Hansard (NILA/7).