1901 Census Of Ireland

Household return form for the 1901 Census of Ireland

The household returns and ancillary records for the censuses of Ireland of 1901 and 1911, which are in the custody of the National Archives of Ireland, represent an extremely valuable part of the Irish national heritage. The 1901 census is one of only two Irish census records, along with the 1911 census, which survives in full prior to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Census records for 1821-51 were mainly lost during the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922. Only fragments of these early census records remain, and these are also available on the National Archives of Ireland website. The census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed in 1877 after census data was analysed and the census reports published. The returns for 1881 and 1891 were destroyed in 1918 due to a paper shortage caused by the First World War. No census was conducted in 1921 due to the unrest caused by the Irish War of Independence. The first census of the new Irish Free State was carried out on the 18th of April 1926. Under Irish legislation, there is a 100-year rule limiting the publication of Irish census records. Current plans are for the 1926 census to become available to view for free on the National Archives of Ireland website on 18^th April 2026.

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Using the 1901 Census

The 1901 census of Ireland was taken on the 31st of March 1901. Ireland is unusual among English-speaking census-taking countries in that our original household manuscript returns survive. These are the forms filled out and signed by the head of each household on census night. Most other countries only have Enumerators' books, where family details were transcribed by the person charged with collecting the census information. This means that when looking at the household return you can see the signature of the head of household.

When searching the census be aware of the administrative divisions used by enumerators. County; District Electoral Division; Townland or Street. This is a simple hierarchical structure which makes it easy to access any area in the country. The returns are arranged in clusters by townland/street within district electoral division within county. For each townland/street, there are a number of original household returns, filled in and signed by heads of households, and three statistical returns, dealing with religious denominations, classification of buildings, and out-offices and farm-steadings, filled out by the Enumerator for that townland/street.

The returns for each townland or street in 1901 consist of:

• Forms titled Form A, filled in by the head of each household, giving the names of all people in that household on census night and their age, occupation, religion and county or city of birth (or country of birth if born outside Ireland); and

• Forms (titled Forms N, B1 and B2) filled in by the census enumerator official taking the census, summarising the returns for that townland or street.

As well as surname searches, the returns may be searched by religion, occupation, relationship to head of family, literacy status, county or country of origin, Irish language proficiency, specified illnesses. Be aware however, that there may sometimes be a mismatch in ages between the 1901 and 1911 census. Sometimes an individual may appear to age more or less than the expected decade. This may be a number of reasons for the discrepancy, but often it was simply that exact age wasn't as important to people at that time, particularly those born before civil registration. It wasn't until the introduction of the old age pension in 1908 that many people had an incentive to keep track of their exact age. As such it is important to use records such as baptismal registers and civil records to confirm an individual’s exact age, rather than simply relying on the census.

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Gaps in the 1901 Census

A number of locations are missing from the 1901 Census of Ireland on The National Archives of Ireland website – for a variety of reasons. Some seem to have missed filming so were not available for digitation, some were damaged or lost, also a few sections were filmed but not transcribed and indexed. There may also be some streets and townlands which were digitised but accidentally placed in the wrong electoral district when uploading them. In such situations, it may be necessary to contact the National Archives of Ireland directly in order to determine the status of these missing streets and townlands.

References

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