The National Collection of Tithe Records

The National Collection of Tithe Records

A unique view into our ancestral heritage

Nick Thorne, Writer at TheGenealogist

Nick Thorne

Writer at TheGenealogist


Who Do You Think You Are? Live saw the launch of ‘The National Collection of Tithe Records’ on TheGenealogist. For the first time you will be able to search over 11,000,000 records and view the original documents online.

The Tithe Records provide a unique view into our ancestral heritage by providing details of ownership and occupancy of land throughout England and Wales, revealing a wealth of information about people, places and landmarks in the Victorian era. These pre-census records can allow you to further your research at the click of a button.

Images of maps will soon be linked to the tithe records
Images of maps will soon be linked to the tithe records

The Tithe Records are the perfect accompaniment to Census and BMD records and offer an extra piece in the genealogical jigsaw to give a valuable social and geographical insight into the lives of our Victorian ancestors.

The introduction of the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 meant records were taken, as with the Domesday Book, of the land ownership and occupancy, land use and sizes, and the rents to be paid. This affected everyone from aristocracy to peasantry, from politicians to labourers all levels of the social hierarchy found their way into the Tithe Records to give us a fascinating snapshot of a period in English history.

This first phase at launchwill reveal all tenants and landowners across England and Wales from over 11,000 parishes. This will provide the opportunity to discover whether your ancestors were landowners and how their land was put to use, or if tenants or occupiers, which plots of land they were living or working on.

The second phaseof the project will link images of microfilm maps with the plot references. Launch due Spring 2014.

Access Over a Billion Records

Try a four-month Diamond subscription and we’ll apply a lifetime discount making it just £44.95 (standard price £64.95). You’ll gain access to all of our exclusive record collections and unique search tools (Along with Censuses, BMDs, Wills and more), providing you with the best resources online to discover your family history story.

We’ll also give you a free 12-month subscription to Discover Your Ancestors online magazine (worth £24.99), so you can read more great Family History research articles like this!

View Offer Details

The third phasewill digitise the large original maps in colour for each county at high resolution to enhance this unique resource. Launch due 2015.

This has been an exciting, major project for us. The records touch upon the lives of every family so they really are a must-have for every family historian!

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist

Examples and images from the new online Tithe Records

With an easy to search feature on TheGenealogist, we find the records of major landowners of the time, including The Duke of Wellington, Benjamin Disraeli; Prime Minister and Conservative MP, Sir Percy and his mother Mary Shelley; the well known novelist who wrote ‘Frankenstein’.

Fully transcribed details of Tithe Apportionment are available, as well as a copy of the original image. Here we find Benjamin Disraeli:

Tithe Apportionment of Benjamin DisraeliTithe Apportionment of Benjamin Disraeli
Tithe Apportionment of Benjamin Disraeli

Here we see the Tithe Apportionment records of Sir Percy and Mary Shelley:

Tithe Apportionment of Sir Percy and Mary ShelleyTithe Apportionment of Sir Percy and Mary Shelley
Tithe Apportionment of Sir Percy and Mary Shelley

Below is a copy of the image of the Duke of Wellington’s Tithes Apportionment record. The record illustrates the amount of fields, arable lands and woodlands that the Duke owned and the areas that he occupied and those lands where he had tenants.

Tithe Apportionment of the Duke of Wellington
Tithe Apportionment of the Duke of Wellington

These records have been reproduced from the IR 29 and IR 30 collections in conjunction with The National Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk  ).




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