Please NOTE! Additional materials for this county will be found in the Irish Resources page, which has documents and publications covering all of Ireland.

County Down was occupied by the Voluntii or Uluntii in Ptolemy's time, and it may be from them that the area came to be called Ulagh or Ulidia -- an area that included part of Antrim, and came in time to applied to all of Ulster. It was the home territory of the O'Nial or O'Neill clan. Other important clans included the McGuinness, McCartan and McGilmore clans. Minor clans and septs included O'Mulcreevy, Savage, McMurray, White, O'Lowry, O'Colter, O'Hanvey, O'Devaney, O'Rooney, McDunlevy, and O'Gowan.

25 Most Common Names in Down: Smith Martin Murphy Thompson Johnston Wilson Campbell Moore Cunningham Patterson Burns Bell Morgan McKee Hanna Kelly Hamilton Stewart Murray Graham Gibson Scott Browne McCullagh Robinson.

Down Publications

{Some of the following publications are available on microfiche only - if you do not have a fiche reader, contact your local library, they probably have one you may use (often with print capabilities as well). Click here for further information on placing an order.}

COUNTY DOWN DIRECTORY 1886, Bassett 1886, 4 fiche. Lists businesses and farmers for each town.

INDEXES TO IRISH WILLS (5 Volumes), Phillimore and Thrift 1909/1920
Volume IV (Down, some Antrim and Armagh) 2 fiche.

Down Free Member Access Pages

• Down, List of Catholic Parishes
• Down, List of Civil Parishes

Down Premium Resources

These links will take you to more detailed descriptions.

• Irish Wills, diocese of Dromore
• Irish Wills, Exempt Jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne

  Selecting the links below will take most users to the order page -- for paid subscribers these links will add the selected page to your 'pages ordered' section on your control panel. These are plain text pages.

• 0icp0203 DOWN, AGHADERG, DESCRIPTION 1837
  
• 0icp0210 DOWN, ANACLOAN, DESCRIPTION 1837
  
• 0icp0213 DOWN, DONACLONEY, RESIDENTS 1886
  
• 0icp0180 DOWN, DROMORE DIOCESEAN WILLS INDEX 1687 - 1858 (surnames Abraham to Atkison)
  
• 0icp0183 DOWN, DROMORE DIOCESEAN WILLS INDEX 1687 - 1858 (surnames Bailey to Bell)
  
• 0icp0189 DOWN, DROMORE DIOCESEAN WILLS INDEX 1687 - 1858 (surnames Bellew to Bourns)
  
• 0icp0191 DOWN, DROMORE DIOCESEAN WILLS INDEX 1687 - 1858 (surnames Bowen to Byrns)
  
• 0icp0223 DOWN, DROMORE DIOCESEAN WILLS INDEX 1678 - 1858 (surnames Caddell to Carson)
  
• 0icp0231 DOWN, DROMORE DIOCESEAN WILLS INDEX 1678 - 1858 (surnames Carson to Coulter)
  
• 0icp0219 DOWN, RATHFRILAND DESCRIPTION 1886
  
• 0icp0227 DOWN, RATHFRILAND RESIDENTS 1886
  
• 0icp0181 DOWN, ROBERT SHANKS BIOGRAPHY 1782-1825
  
• 0icp0207 DOWN, St. ANDREWS PARISH, DESCRIPTION 1837
  
• 0icp0215 DOWN, 1796 SPINNING WHEEL LIST (surnames Adair to Byrns)