All your data should be on one table. There is no need for a separate table for different townlands, or for different pages of the Tithe Applotment Books.

Landholder Column
Names of Landholders are given in this column. This column may be titled ‘Landholders’, ‘Names’, ‘Tenants’ Names’, ‘Parishoners’ Names’ or ‘Names of Occupiers’.
If a title is given, enter it under the Title heading. The following forms of titles should be used:
'Esq.', 'Mr.', 'Rev.', 'Widow', 'Snr.', 'Jnr.'.
If two titles are given for the same person, give both, separated by a comma, e.g. ‘Jnr., Esq.’.

Type the forename under the Forename heading as it appears. Don't spell out shortened names. Shortened names and names with superscript letters should be typed thus: ‘Dan’l’, ‘W’m’, ‘Mich’l’. If a second forename or initial is given, enter it in the forename column, e.g. ‘Patrick M’, ‘Michael John’. If no forename is given, e.g. ‘Widow McInerney’, leave the Forename column blank.

Enter surnames under the ‘Surname’ heading. Copy ‘Macs’ as they are given – ‘Mc’, ‘Mac’. For ‘O’ surnames, put an inverted comma (single quotation mark) between the ‘O’ and the rest of the name, even if there isn’t one in the TAB, e.g ‘O’Connor’.
If a surname is double-barrelled (hyphenated) enter both elements of the surname in the surname column. If a name contains two un-hyphenated surnames, enter the last surname in the Surname column and the first one in the Forename column, e.g. Scott (Surname); John Bindon (Forenames). Sometimes a name or appellation is added after the surname, to distinguish between people with the same name, e.g. Michael Haugh Black, Michael Haugh Molly. When this happens, put the appellation in brackets after the forename in the Forename column, ‘Michael (Black)’, the surname in the surname column, and type the entire name as it appears in the TAB in the Note column, i.e. ‘Michael Haugh Black’.
In the case of two people named together, e.g. ‘James & Thomas Vaughan’ enter on separate lines, as ‘James Vaughan’ and ‘Thomas Vaughan’. If a forename is not given for one of the people, e.g. ‘Owen Gorman & Carroll’ leave the forename column blank for that person and type the entire entry in the Note column of both people.

Ignore information like ‘Do Commonage’, ‘Do Mountain’, ‘North of Road’, ‘2nd. Division’, ‘3 Div.’, ‘& Co.’, ‘& Partners’, ‘Ditto’ in this column. Brackets (parentheses) or squiggles are sometimes used in this column to indicate groupings of tenants. Ignore these brackets.
If additional information is given, enter it under the Note heading of your table.

Townland Column
The first column in the TAB contains the name of the townland being surveyed. This column is titled 'Townland' or 'Townland Denomination', or sometimes no heading is given. The name of the townland is written either horizontally across the column or vertically along the length of the page. (Don't worry if this name does not match exactly the name of the townland on the library's list of townlands. This list is a rough guide and contains errors.) If a townland runs over more than one page, the townland name followed by ‘Continued’, or simply the word ‘Continued’, might be used on the second and subsequent pages.
Enter the name of the townland in the Townland column of your table and repeat it for all the people in that townland. If the spelling of a townland varies from one page to another, keep the first version given, and mention the alternative spelling(s) in the Note section.
Sometimes subdivisions of townlands are given, e.g. ‘Rahona Parcel’. Enter this information under the Note heading.

Sometimes, a person’s name is entered in this column, which is the landlord's name. The name should be entered under the Forename and Surname headings, and ‘Landlord’ entered under the Note heading. In the case of a titled landlord, enter the title in the Title column (e.g. ‘Lord’, ‘Marquis of’) and the surname or last element of the title in the Surname column, e.g. ‘Fitzgerald’, ‘Thomond’. Occasionally, notes are written in this column, for example, the current name of the townland. Enter these under the Note section of your table.

Parish Column
Enter the name of the parish in all the cells of your parish column. Use the version of the parish name given in the List of Parishes and their Townlands.

Spellings:
Clare County Library will standardise Parish names to facilitate searching on its website. All other names will be kept as they appear on the TABs.
Sometimes, when two lowercase ‘ss’ occur in the middle of a word, the first ‘s’ is written as an ‘f’, e.g. ‘Spellifsy’. When this happens, write two ‘ss’, e.g. ‘Spellissy’. If you are unsure, mention this in the ‘Note’ section.
If names or words are illegible, indicate this with a question mark. If individual letters are illegible, put a question mark for each letter if possible, e.g. O’D????ghu?.

Please send a small sample of a table as soon as you can so that we make sure that everyone is on the right track. As this is a co-operative venture, we are very open to suggestions, particularly if you come across problems that we have not dealt with in these guidelines. We will also welcome any ideas as to how we could improve the running of this project, (e.g. thanks to Dick Kelly of Maine, USA, for his very helpful suggestions on the table layout).

We will be indicating which Lots are being worked on, or are completed, so that volunteers can choose which ones need to be transcribed. We would like to put each volunteer’s name opposite the Lot they are working on, plus their City/State and country. If you would prefer your name and location not to appear on this list, please let us know.