Ulster Householders, Businesses, and Occupations

Title: Ulster Householders, Businesses, and Occupations, 1694–1914

Date: 1694-1914

Description: This database compiles and integrates information from a wide range of historical sources to document households, businesses, and occupations across the province of Ulster between 1690 and 1914. Drawing on trade directories, newspapers, estate papers, valuation records, and other archival materials, it provides a comprehensive resource for tracing individuals, families, and economic activity over more than two centuries of Ulster’s social and economic history.

This is an ongoing project, and new material will continue to be added as additional sources are identified and digitised.

At present, the database includes data drawn from the following directories and indexes:

• A List of People Holding Railway Shares in Irish Railways, 1847
• Abattoir Register of Licensed Butchers in Belfast, 1910-1935
• Belfast Almanack and Directory, 1820
• Belfast Co-Op Consumers of Coal, 1947
• Blacksmiths Registered in Belfast, 1833-43
• Businessmen who issued tokens in Ireland, 1653-1679
• Cahir Directory County Tipperary, 1889
• Coastguard Officers in Ireland, 1864 
• Collectors of Taxes in Ireland, 1678
• Directory and Household Almanac for Co. Fermanagh, 1880
• Directory of Farmers and Residents of Carrick On Suir, Co. Tipperary, 1884
• Directory of Farmers and Residents of Newtownards, Co. Down, 1876
• Directory of Householders and Residents of Coagh and Surrounding Townlands, Co. Londonderry, 1808
• Directory of Inhabitants and Householders in Downpatrick, Co. Down, 1790
• Directory of Merchants and Tradesmen in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, 1824
• Directory of Merchants and Tradesmen in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, 1846
• Directory of Merchants and Tradesmen in Monaghan, Co. Monaghan, 1865
• Directory of Merchants and Tradesmen of Armagh, Co. Armagh, 1824
• Directory of Merchants and Tradesmen of Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, 1824
• Directory of Merchants, Traders and Businesses in Belfast, 1807
• Directory of Merchants, Traders and Businesses in Belfast, 1808
• Directory of Merchants, Traders and Businesses in Belfast, 1865
• Directory of Merchants, Tradesmen and Businesses in Portrush, Co. Londonderry, 1884
• Directory of Officials in Belfast and its Vicinity, 1820
• Directory of Publican and Inn Owners, Co. Londonderry, 1839
• Directory of Residents and Merchants of Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, 1846
• Directory of Residents in Lurgan, Co. Armagh and Warrenpoint, Co. Down, 1820
• Directory of the Gentry, Clergy, Linen Drapers and Farmers, of which Banbridge and Loughbrickland were the Post Towns, 1823
• Directory of Trades and Businesses in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, 1884
• Directory of Waringstown Residents, 1819
• Dublin, Belfast and Coleraine Junction Railway Committee and Office Holders, 1845
• Employment of the Industrious Blind, 1871-1875
• Farmers and Residents of Clonmel, 1889
• Index listing Tenants on the Belfast Estate of the Marquis of Donegall, 1855
• Index of Brown Linen Seal Masters, 1828
• Index of Burgesses and Freemen in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim (Pre-1706)
• Index of Butchers Working in the City of Belfast, 1830
• Index of Churchwardens of Donaghcloney Parish, 1694-1898
• Index of Insurance Agents, Co. Londonderry, 1860
• Index of Linen Drapers in Moneymore, Co. Londonderry, 1796
• Index of Owners/occupiers of lands in Limavady, Co. Londonderry, 1827
• Index of Scutchers in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, 1914
• Index of the proprietors of the Belfast Commercial Buildings, 1823
• Index of Town Commissioners for Lurgan, Co. Armagh, 1855
• Index of Ulster Households, 1837
• Inns, Hotels and Taverns in Belfast, 1839
• Licensed Apothecaries and Apprentices to Apothecaries in Ireland, 1791-1829
• List of Agents Working for Florencecourt Brick, Tile and Pottery Works, 1877
• List of Agents Working for the East India Tea Company
• List of Belfast Cotton Manufacturers,Spinners and Merchants, 1819
• List of District Registrars in Ireland, 1860
• List of Good Tea Agents in Ireland, 1855
• List of Motor Spirit Dealers, 1922
• List of Postmasters in Ireland, 1876 
• List of Shareholders Derry Central Railway Company, 1877
• List of Spirit Grocers in Ireland, 1838-1844
• List of the proprietors of licenses for private sedan chairs, 1788
• List of Wholseale Grocers in Northern Ireland, 1924
• Members of the Business Community, Belfast 1798
• Merchants and Traders of Donegal, 1846
• Merchants living in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, 1846
• Offer of Service from the Tenants of Lord Charles Fitzgerald, c.1798
• Owners of Motor Transport in Banbridge, Co. Down, 1924
• Pawnbrokers Registered in Ireland, 1832-1844
• Register of Milk Suppliers, Belfast, 1922
• RIC Constables Stationed in Ulster, 1828
• Royal Irish Constabulary County Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors, 1860
• Scutch Mills of Ireland, 1876
• Shares in Belfast Ropeworks, 1941
• The Belfast And Province Of Ulster Directory, 1900
• Town Commissioners in Ireland, 1828-43
• Veterinary Surgeons in Ireland, 1901

Compiled by: UHF volunteers, David Keane and Alba De Evan Freijedo, William Hull, Niamh Magill, Martina Podsklanova, Padraig Linden (St Malachys College)
 

Sources consulted/transcribed for this database include:

• A list of the proprietors of licenses for private sedan chairs, Dublin, 25th March 1788 (Rotunda Lying-in Hospital, Dublin)
• A return of the name of each person in each year since the 24th June 1791, who has been examined by the governor and directors of the Apothecaries' Hall in Dublin, and who has received a certificate of his proper qualification to become an assistant or journeyman to the business of an apothecary. 1829: XXII [British Parliamentary Papers, HC 1829, XXII]
• An Ulster Parish: Being a History of Donaghcloney, Waringstown (E.D. Atkinson, 1898)
• Belfast Directory for 1807; or, a list of the names and places of the merchants and traders, etc (Smyth and Lyons, 1807)
• Belfast Directory for 1808; or, a list of the names and places of the merchants and traders, etc (Smyth and Lyons, 1808)
• Belfast Newsletter, 1828
• Belfast Newsletter, 28 February, 1845
• Bradshaw's General And Commercial Directory, 1819
• British Parliamentary Papers, 1843, 50
• British Parliamentary Papers, 1845
• British Parliamentary Papers: Official Returns
• Business Directory of Belfast (R. Wynne, 1865)
• Businessmen who issued tokens in Ireland, 1653-1679 (The Irish Ancestor, 1978)
• Collectors of Taxes in Ireland, 1678 (The Irish Ancestor, 1974)
• County Fermanagh: One Hundred Years Ago: A Guide and Directory (Henry N. Lowe, 1880)
• Directory of Belfast and its Vicinity (Joseph Smyth, 1820)
• Downpatrick Recorder, 04 February, 1860
• Enniskillen Sentinel, 25th January, 1877
• First Report from the Select Committee on Fictitious Votes, Ireland; with the Minutes of Evidence and Appendix, 1837
• Ireland Exhibited to England (A. Atkinson, 1823)
• List of Agents Working for the East India Tea Company
• Martin's Belfast Directory, 1839
• Names of proprietors of the Belfast Commercial Buildings (01 November, 1823)
• Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Tyrone II, Volume 20
• Pigot and Co.'s Provincial Directory of Ireland, 1824
• Portrush Business and Trades Directory (Derry Almanac, 1884)
• PRONI, COM/13/1/12
• PRONI, COM/13/1/22
• PRONI, COM/13/4/39
• PRONI, COM/32/3
• PRONI, D/3964/K/29
• PRONI, D162/18
• PRONI, D272/18
• PRONI, D3563
• PRONI, D3695
• PRONI, LA/7/21/L/1
• PRONI, LA51/50/D/56
• PRONI, T1641
• PRONI, T2132/4
• PRONI, T3260/1
• Return from the Marshal of the City of Dublin of the Pawnbrokers in Ireland for the Year ending 31 December 1844
• Slater's National Commercial Directory of Ireland, 1846
• The Belfast Almanack and Directory (J. Smyth, 1820)
• The Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1865
• The Belfast And Province Of Ulster Directory, 1900
• The Book of County Tipperary (George Henry Bassett, 1889)
• The General Directory of Newry, Armagh, and the towns of Dungannon, Portadown, Tandragee, Lurgan, Waringstown, Banbridge,
• Warrenpoint, Rosstrevor, Kilkeel, Rathfriland (Thomas Bradshaw, 1820)
• The Irish Linen Trade Hand-Book and Directory (F. W. Smith, 1876)
• The Register of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), 1901
• Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, 1860
• Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, 1864
• Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, 1876
• Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, 1884
• Tyrone Constitution, 02 March, 1855