----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Spearing" <morganplace@comcast.net> To: <ireland-roll-calls@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 4:35 PM Subject: Re: [IRELAND-ROLL-CALLS] Surviving 1851 Census Returns of Ireland > > hi all, > > i also was amazed that part of the census survived and i had no problem > getting into that free site. alsa, i found out also that limerick did not > survive. > > i do want to mention that for people stuck for records, the mormons have 2 > very under-utilized and little advertised surname and townland indexes for > land deeds for all of ireland from 1709 into the 20th century. these > microfilms list surnames for people that were engaged in land transactions > and after 1839 the surname index also lists the county. > > if you get a hit there would be an associated actual land deed on another > microfilm and they are amazing documents that sometimes list whole > families > as inheritors or witnesses and the actual townlands in a parish where your > family bought, sold or leased land. i traced my family over 150 years > through these deeds in the absence of church records and censuses. > > i believe they are listed in the mormon microfilm catalog as "abstracts of > land deeds, ireland" > > bob spearing They are only useful if your ancestors were significant property owners in the main. If your people were of the vast majority Irish tenant farmers and labourers there is unlikely to be anything in these registry of deeds indices for you. Brian