In 1766, Irish Parliament ordered a Religious Census of Ireland taken by each Church of Ireland pastor to determine the number of Protestant versus Catholic families in their parishes. The reports were kept in the Public Records Office in Dublin.
During the Irish Civil War in 1922, many records held in the Public Records Office were destroyed by the fire at the Four Courts, including the original census records. Fortunately some handwritten transcripts of them survived. They had been written by an archivist, Tenison Groves, years before the fire. The transcripts for Donaghmore Parish are now saved in the National Archives in Dublin in documents M207 and M208.
As usual, there was a little confusion in the records when I searched these documents in 2001. It appeared that the good vicar did the Protestant families first and listed the names of 708 Protestant families. There were a few traditional Irish names among the Protestants like McLaughlin, Dougherty, Gallagher, McBride, and Bradley (but no Gallens). Then it appears as if he recounted and listed only 280 Protestant families. Where did the others go? Maybe he went beyond the parish boundary on his first count. Sorry, I don’t have the answer for the discrepancy. Then he listed the “Romans.” There were 514 Catholic families. The most common names in the parish were Gallagher (various spellings), Kelly, Boyle, Queen (Quinn), McMannemmy (McMenamin), and Dougherty. There were over 20 families in the parish with each of those names. Other prominent names are Gallen (14 names), McGoldrick (9), McCormack (11), O’Donnell (10), and McNulty (12).
The photos in this post are the transcripts of the census of Donaghmore Parish from the National Archives. Only the names of heads of households are shown. Because I was searching for my family name, the pages only show the Roman Catholic families. The names of Protestant families are not included. Sorry.
Click on the photo to enlarge it or double click for even better enhancement:
Catholic Heads of Household – 1766 Census of Donaghmore Parish
Catholic Heads of Household – 1766 Census of Donaghmore Parish
Catholic Heads of Household – 1766 Census of Donaghmore Parish
Catholic Heads of Household – 1766 Census of Donaghmore Parish
Catholic Heads of Household – 1766 Census of Donaghmore Parish
