Genealogy
Using and understanding 1901 and 1911 online census records
Tom Quinlan explains Of all the archival sources of information available to those with an interest in genealogy, census records – a survey and enumeration of all people and households at a designated point in time - are perhaps the most valuable and frequently used. A nation’s official census of population constitutes the most complete periodic survey of information about a country’s people that government makes. Because the aim is to include everybody, the returns of information made to government provide a detailed and comprehensive snapshot of an entire population, where the same type of information has been collected on everyone at the same point in time. Although a census is undertaken for the primary purpose of providing government with essential information on the people who make up the nation, one of the secondary uses of census return forms is by those engaged in research of their ancestors. And few richer seams of quality information on people are to be found. A census was taken in Ireland every ten years from 1821 until 1911. No census was taken in 1921 because of the disturbed state of the county during the War of Independence. Decennial census resumed in 1926 in those twenty- six counties that comprised the Irish Free State and a census subsequently taken in 1936 and 1946. The pattern of collection then changed and a census was taken in 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1979 (the census due in 1976 was cancelled as an economy measure), 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2006, 2011 and 2016. The State body charged with the collection and analysis of census in Ireland is the Central Statistics Office. However, before haring off in that
direction to hunt for elusive ancestors in its raw data, remember that census records are closed to public access for 100 years from the date on which the census was taken. This means that the latest census to which there is public access is the 1911 census. Unfortunately, most of the census returns for 1821 to 1851 were destroyed by fire and explosion in the former Public Record Office of Ireland during bombardment of the Four Courts, where the PROI was situated, at the commencement of the Civil War. Only a small quantity of returns now survives for certain portions of counties and for certain Senior Times l May - June 2020 l www.seniortimes.ie 66
