Census Substitutes for Co. Kildare including trade directories and voters’ lists now online
Commercial and trade directories are an invaluable source of information for family history research for the late eighteenth to the twentieth century in Ireland. They list professional services, gentry, police, clergy, public officials, and military personnel, and often include outlying areas and smaller towns, offering a snapshot of commercial, private, and administrative life. Provincial and county directories, such as Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland, are particularly useful. They provide names, occupations, and addresses of individuals, including church and school staff.
Between 2005-2011 the Kildare Local Studies department of Kildare Library Service extracted individual records pertaining to Co. Kildare from Slater’s Trade Directories of 1846 and 1881, and Thom’s Directories, 1849 and 1854. These sources offer a snapshot of life in Co. Kildare between the Famine (1839-1845) and the Local Government Act of 1898.
Another wonderful source for family and local history are local newspapers. Kildare Local Studies also extracted individual records from the Leinster Express newspaper of 1836 pertaining to Co. Kildare voters. The following can be accessed via the All Ireland genealogy site, www.rootsireland.ie, which also has baptismal, marriage, death, tithe and Griffith’s Valuation and census records for all Irish counties, along with a selection of gravestone inscriptions and other records:
- Slater’s Trade Directories for Co. Kildare, 1846 and 1881 (3,234 records)
- Thom’s Directories, 1849 and 1854 (511 records)
- Voters’ Lists of Qualifying Freeholders and Leaseholders from the Leinster Express newspaper, of 1836 (4,533 records)
