Because of the poor survival rate of Irish census records from the Nineteenth Century, worthwhile substitutes for this period are a particularly welcome addition for the historian and genealogist . Irish Nineteenth Century prison records are one such resource, offering a uniquely detailed database of a surprisingly broad section of Irish society. They reflect the twin preoccupations of 19th Century authorities with zealous record-keeping matched with zero tolerance to crime. Irish Nineteenth Century Prison Records: survey and evaluation samples the content of some of the forty-five prisons in this collection to have survived. Available records were examined for their detail and scope, and a variety of uses for the data in question was tested . Although it is plain that government penal and judicial reform were shaping the content of these records throughout the century, the registers of virtually every jail in this survey remained curiously regional in nature and they reveal much about their local area.