A Century of Recovery – and Beyond - Marking the centenary of the Four Courts fire (1922) and the launch of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

16 Gold Seam 3 1766 Religious Census of Ireland The ‘returns’ for the 1766 religious census of Ireland are one of the richest sources available to the historical and genealogical researcher for the period prior to the commencement of the statutory census series in 1813. By good fortune, 59 original items from the census survived the Four Courts blaze, covering parishes in Armagh, Cork, Derry, Limerick, Louth, Tipperary, Tyrone and Waterford. They were probably spared because they were held over in the Strong Room at Easter 1922. These salved returns have been conserved and digitized by the National Archives (Ireland) with support from the Irish Manuscripts Commission. The 59 salved documents represent 7% of the original total of nearly 800 census returns. By combining these originals with all other transcriptions—for instance, handwritten and typed notes by the genealogist Tenison Groves, which now survive in the National Library of Ireland, PRONI and the Representative Church Body Library- more than 50% of the 1766 census can be reconstructed in whole or in part. Over 50,000 names of individuals across all religious denominations have been transcribed from these sources. This may be some compensation for the destruction of the individual returns from the nineteenth-century statutory census. Alas, for these only fragmentary replacements are possible. Wax seal and post mark on the 1766 census return for Ballymore parish, in Armagh diocese, posted from Tandragee to the Parliament House, Dublin, on 11 April 1766. Photo: National Archives of Ireland.