Unusual Sources- Dog Licences in Ireland

 

When putting together family trees in Ireland a researcher must sometimes resort to using some less familiar resources, such as Dog Licences.

Irish records are notoriously scant which is the result of a combination of:

* being a war torn, invaded country

* The General Records Office having been blown up (munitions stored IN the building) in the 1920s. All records had been studiously collected into this state of the art building for safe keeping......

* Census records having been destroyed in the blast and subsequent fire, having been purposely destroyed as not being of interest and having been turned into pulp for paper production during war time.

It is therefore very difficult to put together family trees .......So you go looking for alternative information sources- such as Dog Licences!

Dog licences were introduced into Irish law in 1865 with the first licences issued the following year. A licence cost 2 Shillings per dog with an extra 6 pence for administration costs. The licences were issued in the same court as held the Petty Sessions. The licences proved to be a good revenue source and, by listing owners, made owners more responsible for the behaviour of their dogs. Now an owner could be brought to court for their dog's bad behaviour e.g killing a neighbour's sheep.

Find My Past (subscription required) has an extensive collection of Dog Licence records and are adding more each year.

Searching for HINGERTY in relation to Dog Licences on Find My Past turned up the following:

On March 31 1884 Mr Hingerty of Drumin registered his yellow terrier (male) at Nenagh Court.

Google maps tells us that Drumin is a village on the northern edge of Nenagh.  However we don't know which Mr Hingerty this refers to.....

From 1885 until 1909 there is a series of entries for Patrick Hingerty registering a variety of dogs at Nenagh Court.

However, it is not clear if we are looking at a series of records for the same Patrick Hingerty or for multiple Patricks.....

Bunacum, Kilnafinch, Toomavara are all within an hour or so walking distance to each other. I cannot locate Culcuriheen on Google maps. 

If it is the same Patrick Hingerty, he changes his address and his dogs very frequently and changes his breeds frequently too....

As more Dog Licence records are added to Find My Past, we may be able to fill in the years in between and check if there are any years where two (or more) Patrick Hingertys register two different dogs in the same year.

1885    Patrick of Bunacum registers Male Red Curr

1887    "                    "            registers Black Greyhound

1888    "         of Kilnafinch    registers Male Black Hound

1889    "        of Bunacum    registers a Male Spotted Curr

1892    "                    "           registers Female Red and White Greyhound

1900    "        of Toomavara     registers Male Mouse Hound

1901    "                    "            registers Female Red Terrier

1903    "        of Bunacum     registers a Red Hound

1906     "        of Toomavara registers Blk terrier & greyhound- indexed as Hengerty on FMP

1909    "        of Culcuriheen    registers Female Brown Greyhound

1910     "       of Toomavara    registers brindle greyhound- indexed as Hengerty on FMP

From 1907 until 1923 there are a series of records from Michael Hingerty of Sally Park, Latteragh having registered his dogs at Nenagh.

This Michael Hingerty has a consistent residence which makes it easier to identify him as the Michael Hingerty born in 1868 in Balybeg, son of Patrick Hingerty and Mary Ryan. Michael married Johanna Maher in 1903. They had seven children and their household is listed in the 1911 Census.

Michael seemed to favour terriers as he registered:

1907    Male Black and White Terrier

1913    Female Red Terrier

1914    Female Brown Terrier

1916    Female Brown Terrier

1917    Red Terrier- indexed as Hengerty on Find My Past

1919    Male Red Terrier

1921    Fawn Greyhound

1923    Brown Terrier

Once again the dogs didn't seem to live long lives.

Did he like terriers for their ability to catch rats? or for hunting small game??

In 1908 "Sergt" Hingerty living in Moate registered his black and white terrier. This would be James Hingerty/Hingarty who was born in 1870 and married Bridie Ryan in 1809.  They had ten children. James was a police sergeant.

Eight years later in 1916, James' son Michael Hingerty of Kilbeggan is listed as registering his black and white terrier. James' son Michael was Michael Patrick Hingerty and the listing is for Michael J Hingerty- however the location is correct for James' family. So I am making the assumption that it is a mistake made by the person making the entry as there are no other known Hingerty families in this area at that time..

Michael would have only been 9 years old at the time of registration. Was policeman James teaching his young son to be responsible for his dog?

Father and son both seem to prefer terriers.

Post script: Found on Find My Past indexed as M P Hengerty of Kilbeggan- registration of terrier. 

The only other Hingerty found in the Dog Registration records currently on Find My Past, is Martin Hingerty of Lisduff, Moneygall who registered his dogs from 1915-18.

Martin is not a common Hingerty forename (unlike John, Patrick and Michael!) and in this case we have records for three years close together all with the same forename and location. Therefore, it would seem that this is Martin Hingerty born 1846 in Moneygall, the son of Edward/Ted/Ned Hingerty and Judith Tierney. He married Catherine Hogan in 1890 and they had four children. 

It is interesting to note that while Martin is called Hingerty for records such as baptisms, marriage and dog licences, he and his family are listed as Harrington on the 1901 and the 1911 censuses... intriguing.

Martin also preferred terriers:

1915    Female Yellow and White Terrier

1917    Female Brown Terrier

1918    Female Brown Terrier

Summary:

As often is the case, the records support some previously known information, but also raise more issues.....hopefully as more dog licence records are published some of the issues may be resolved. We live in hope...

Meanwhile, we can say that the Hingerty dog of choice in Ireland between 1884 and 1923 was a terrier.

You may have noticed that the dogs are not listed as the breeds we are familiar with today. At the time of the introduction of the dog licences, dogs were described not as breeds but in accordance with the purpose they served e.g sheep dog, hound, terrier.

To find out more about the change from describing dogs by breed rather than purpose and to see how Queen Victoria's chicken fancying impacted on dog breeding, check out the podcast Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature

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