Irish Tithe Applotment Books

Tracing your Irish ancestry is often challenging because many of the country's key records are missing, including the 19th century census records. The Tithe Applotment books are therefore an important Irish family history resource. 

Tithe Applotment books were compiled in Ireland between 1823 and 1837. Their purpose was to assess the monetary rate of the tithe, a 10 per cent religious tax on the agricultural output of land in the country that was levied for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland. All of the agricultural lands in Ireland were surveyed and the name of the occupier, the size of their holding and the rate of the tithe were recorded.

Although they are not a comprehensive record of all households, the Tithe Applotment books are the earliest documents listing the occupiers of property in 19th century Ireland. If you've found an ancestor in Griffith's Valuation, you may find them in the Tithe Applotment books a generation earlier. Only the head of the household was recorded, so you won’t find other relatives. Also, the tithe was applied solely to agricultural land, which largely excludes urban areas and landless labourers and tradesmen.

The Tithe Applotment books were not exactly uniform in their content, and the quality of information gathered varies. One book might only record the landlord as the tithe payer, while another may contain detailed notes on each occupier. The terms “& Co.” and “& partners” do not refer to a business arrangement, but to a group of tenants farming common land. Occasionally, the occupiers of urban property were enumerated and one surveyor recorded the trade or profession of each individual in a town.

The tithe was a very unpopular tax especially with Catholics as they were expected to the support a church to which they did not belong. Farmers began withholding their tithe payments in 1830, and as this movement gained momentum there were outbreaks of violent conflict between tenants, Tithe collectors and clergymen. The ‘Tithe War’ was ended by the 1838 Tithe Commutation Act, which transferred the burden of the Tithe from tenant farmer to landlord.

For Northern Ireland an index for all six counties has been published at Roots Ireland where you can undertake an all-Ireland search or target a specific county. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has recently published digital images of the tithe applotment books for Northern Ireland, which can be accessed through its online catalogue. For the Republic of Ireland (ROI) there is an index of names and places published at Ancestry in the collection ‘Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1805–1837’. This index does not include the acreage, quality and valuation or other annotations from the original record. Half of the 26 counties for the ROI have been similarly indexed at RootsIreland.