A unique land survey taken to determine the amount of tax payable to the Church of Ireland by landholders, the Tithe Applotment Books collectively represent a virtual census for pre-Famine Ireland. Because the results of this land survey were originally compiled in nearly 2,000 hand-written volumes, this resource is known to genealogists as the Tithe Applotment Books. This database references the counties that make up present-day Northern Ireland: Counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.
In the original enumeration, each landholder was recorded along with details such as townland, size of holding, land quality and types of crops. The amount of tithe payable by each landholder was based on all of these factors and calculated by a formula using the average price of wheat and oats from 1816-23.
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