Hundreds of Donegal census records, thought to have been destroyed in the Public Records Office fires in Dublin in 1922, have been recovered.
Three clusters are notable:
1821, Killymard parish, near Donegal Town. These extracts sourced from the book Killymard, ancient and modern. Attempts to track down the original notebooks containing the original transcriptions have so far proved unsuccessful.
1851, Gartan parish. Complete census records for about 15 townlands in the Glenveagh area.
1821, Clonmany and Desertegny civil parishes. All Doherty/Dogherty households and all households containing at least one person called Doherty (e.g. as servants or live-in labourers). This has resulted in the recovery of about 40% of the original census returns for both parishes.
The documents are now freely available online through the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Four Courts blaze.
This news is abstracted from an article in the Donegal Daily, which includes detailed instructions on access.