When the first edition of this book appeared in 2005 it was quickly recognised as an essential work of reference for family historians researching Ulster ancestors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It filled an important gap in providing reliable guidance on sources for perhaps the most critical period in understanding a family’s links with the north of Ireland.

This is territory where some family historians fear to tread. But they need not. This guide opens up avenues for research; drawing attention to the riches of archives inside and outside of the island of Ireland, demonstrating the benefit of often undervalued, rare, even quite unconventional, yet accessible sources – if you know where to look – which can help document your ancestors back to the 1600s.

At more than twice the size of the original, this new edition is a massively expanded version of the first volume. It includes additional information on church records and landed estate papers, as well as new chapters looking at records relating to law and order, emigration, business and occupations, diaries and journals, and clubs and societies.

The extensive appendices to the book include a summary breakdown of the sources available from this period for every parish in the historic nine counties of Ulster (including a listing of surviving pre-1800 church records); a detailed description of around 350 collections of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century landed estate papers; and a listing of more than 500 towns and villages in Ulster with parish locations.

Whether your ancestors are of English, Scottish or Gaelic Irish background, whether their religious affiliation was Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic or other, whether they were farmers, merchants or labourers, this volume will be of enormous value to anyone wishing to find out more about their Ulster roots.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and Note on Sources

A brief history of Ulster in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

1. Introduction
   1.1 Getting Started with research
   1.2 Background reading
   1.3 Contemporary descriptive accounts
   1.4 The Internet
   1.5 Surnames
   1.6 Place-Names and land divisions
   1.7 Archives and libraries on the island of Ireland
   1.7.1 Northern Ireland
   1.7.2 Republic of Ireland
   1.8 Repositories in Britain
   1.8.1 England an Wales
   1.8.2 Scotland
2. Church Records
   2.1 The Church of Ireland
   2.1.1 Church of Ireland registers
   2.1.2 Vestry minute books
   2.1.3 Information on Anglican clergymen
   2.1.4 Tithe records
   2.1.5 Records of bishops and diocesan archives
   2.2 The Presbyterian Churches
   2.2.1 The Presbyterian Church in Ireland
   2.2.2 The Secession Presbyterian Church
   2.2.3 The Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church
   2.2.4 The Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church
   2.3 The Methodist Church
   2.4 The Moravian Church
   2.5 The Religious Society of Friends
   2.6 The Roman Catholic Church
   2.7 Huguenots
3. Gravestone Inscriptions
   3.1 Graveyards
   3.2 The place of burial
   3.3 Gravestones
   3.4 Gravestone decoration
   3.5 Locating inscriptions
4. Seventeenth-century records
   4.1 Pre-Plantation records
   4.1.1 Fiants of the Tudor soverigns
   4.2 Records relating to the Plantation period, 1610-1640
   4.2.1 Books on the Ulster Plantation
   4.2.2 Plantation surveys
   4.2.3 R.J. Hunter papers
   4.2.4 Ulster port books
   4.2.5 Ulster roll of gaol delivery
   4.2.6 Irish statute staple records
   4.2.7 Calendars of patent rolls
   4.2.8 Denization and naturalisation records
   4.2.9 Calendars of state papers
   4.2.10 Ulster inquisitions
   4.2.11 Summonister rolls
   4.2.12 Muster rolls
   4.2.13 The Great Parchment Book
   4.3 Records relating to the 1641 rising and its aftermath
   4.3.1 The 1641 depositions
   4.3.2 Muster rolls
   4.4 Records relating to the Cromwellian and Restoration land settlements
   4.4.1 The proposed transplantation of Scots from Ulster
   4.4.2 Civil Survey
   4.4.3 Books of survey and distribution
   4.4.4 Land Grants
   4.4.5 Court of Claims
   4.5 Name lists from c. 1660 to c. 1690
   4.5.1 '1659 Census'
   4.5.2 Poll books
   4.5.3 hearth money rolls
   4.5.4 Subsidy rolls
   4.5.5 Excommunications in Derry diocese
   4.5.6 Franciscan petition lists
   4.5.7 Laggan presbytery lists
   4.5.8 Collectors' accounts
   4.6 Records from the period of the Williamite War
   4.6.1 Jacobite corporations
   4.6.2 Names of those attained by James II
   4.6.3 Protestant refugees from Ireland
   4.6.4 Participants in the war
   4.6.5 Williamite land settlement
5. Eighteenth-century records
   5.1 'Census Substitutes
   5.1.1 'A view of the archbishopric of Armagh' 1703
   5.1.2 Lists of the nobility and gentry in each county c. 1730
   5.1.3 Religious census for Cray barony, County Antrim, 1734
   5.1.4 'Census of Protestant householders' 1740
   5.1.5 The religious census of 1766
   5.1.6 Hearts of Steel memorials, 1771-2
   5.1.7 The flaxseed premiums of 1796
   5.2 Records arising from the Penal Laws
   5.2.1 Convert Rolls
   5.2.2 Catholic Qualification Rolls
   5.2.3 Petitions of Protestant Dissenters, 1775
   5.3 Records relating to the United Irishmen and 1798 Rebellion
   5.3.1 Records in the National Archives of Ireland
   5.3.2 Records in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
   5.3.3 Records in the National Library of Ireland
   5.3.4 Catholics departing from Ulster in 1795-6
   5.3.5 Published studies of the United Irishmen and 1798 Rebellion
   5.4 Post Rebellion records
   5.4.1 Petitions relating to the Act of Union 1799-1800
   5.4.2 Emmet's Rebellion of 1803
   5.4.3 The agricultural census in 1803
6.  Landed estate records
   6.1 Landed estates in Ulster
   6.2 Locating estate papers
   6.3 Identifying the relevant estate
   6.4 The range of records
   6.4.1 Leases
   6.4.2 Lease books
   6.4.3 Rentals
   6.4.4 Maps
   6.4.5 Surveys and valuations
   6.4.6 Correspondence
   6.4.7 Accounts
   6.4.8 Manor court records
   6.5 Undertenants and cottiers
   6.6 Other sources of information on landed estates
7. The Registry of Deeds
   7.1 The creation of the Registry of Deeds
   7.2 The registration process
   7.3 The indexes
   7.4 The range of documents registered
   7.5 The value of research in the Registry of Deeds
   7.6 Access to the Registry of Deeds
8. Wills and testamentary papers
   8.1 The administration of testamentary matters
   8.2 Indexes to testamentary records
   8.3 The availability of testamentary records
   8.4 The information in a will
9. Records relating to government and the legal system
   9.1 Records of the Irish Parliament
   9.2 Grand Jury records
   9.3 Corporation records
   9.4 Records relating to the legal system
10. Parliamentary election records
    10.1 The electorate
    10.2 Election records
    10.3 surviving election records
11. Military records
    11.1 The regular army
    11.2 The militia
    11.3 The Volunteers
    11.4 The Yeomanry
    11.5 Surviving records of the militia, Volunteers and Yeomanry, 1691-1800
    11.6 Continental armies
12. Newspapers and books
    12.1 Eighteenth-century Ulster newspapers
    12.2 The range of material in newspapers
    12.3 other newspapers in Ireland and Britain
    12.4 Publications of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
13.  Records relating to the emigration from Ulster
    13.1 Background reading
    13.2 Newspapers and emigration
    13.3 Estate papers and emigration
    13.4 Church records and emigration
    13.5 Emigrant's letters/journals
    13.6 Other sources of information on emigration
    13.7 Transportation
14. Education, charity and hospital records
    14.1 Education records
    14.2 Charity records
    14.3 Hospital records
15.  Business and occupation records
    15.1 The range of business records
    15.2 Business records relating to Ulster, 1600-1800
    15.3 Trade tokens
    15.4 Occupations
16. Records of organisations, clubs and societies
    16.1 The Freemasons
    16.2 The Orange Order
    16.3 Other organisations
17. Diaries, journals, memoirs and correspondence

Appendices
1. Records relating to parishes in Ulster
2. Estate collections
3. Archives and libraries
4. Locations in Ulster

Maps

Subscribers

Index