Centenary of 1901 Census of Ireland

Special Feature

by

Michael H. Carroll

On Saturday, 31st March, 2001 a major milestone in Irish genealogical research was celebrated. It was the 100th anniversary of the date on which the 1901 Census of Ireland was conducted.

One hundred years may not seem a long time but due to a number of factors the 1901 Census of Ireland is extremely important in family history research in Ireland. The main reasons why 1901 is critical are :

• While the British Government conducted a census in Ireland in 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911, none are completely extant before 1901. While the later census returns of the 19th century were deliberately destroyed ( some to produce wood pulp during World War I ), the mid-century returns from 1841 and 1851 ( a critical period in Irish history as they span the 'Famine' decade ) did survive. Until 1922 that is. Following the burning of the Four Courts in Dublin, home to the Public Records Office, during the Irish Civil War in June 1922 all of these returns were lost along with countless other public records - a devastating blow to genealogical research in Ireland. The 1901 and 1911 returns however survived as they were not housed in the Four Courts at that time.
  
  

• The 1901 returns are the only complete record of every house and townland in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. While 'census substitutes' such as Griffith's Valuation are used for 'head of household' and surname research in the mid-century period ( 1850 - 1860 ), 1901 remains the sole record of every individual on the island on Sunday, 31st March of that year.
  
  

• Under law, census returns in Britain/Ireland are not normally opened to the public until 100 years have elapsed. Because of the dearth of pre-1900 data due to the destruction of the Four Courts building in 1922, the Irish Government waived this rule for the 1901 and 1911 census returns and these are open to the public at the National Archives in Dublin. They are also available on microfilm and can be accessed at good libraries and genealogical centres around the world. The 1926 census returns ( there was no census in 1921 due to the civil unrest in the country ) will not be made public until 2026!

As stated previously, manuscript returns for each household survive for all 32 counties on the island of Ireland for 1901 ( and 1911 ). These returns are arranged by townland or, in urban areas, by street. Each townland or street was grouped with a number of townlands or streets into District Electoral Divisions ( DEDs ) for reporting purposes. These equate to wards or other administrative areas created for electoral voting reasons. The returns for each townland or street consist of :

Forms ( Form A ) filled in by the head of each household, giving the names of all persons in that household on census night. Information that was requested is outlined below.

Forms ( N, B1, B2 ) filled in by the official taking the census, summarising the returns for that townland or street. These enumerators were mostly police constables with the Royal Irish Constabulary ( RIC ), especially in rural areas.

The categories of data completed by the head of household on Form A were as follows :

· Given Name
· Surname
· Religion
· Education
· Age
· Sex
· Occupation
· Marital Status
· Where Born
· Languages Spoken
· Whether Deaf, Dumb or Blind

To examine the returns for a particular townland or street, then the DED must first be established. There is a Townland Index for 1901 which lists the DED number for each townland ( there is a Street Index for major urban areas such as Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Kingstown [ Dun Laoghaire ] and Limerick ).

On This Site

On this web site, www.lalley.com, the entire 1901 census returns for the civil parish of Cargin, Co. Galway are listed. The civil parish was an old land administration measure used up until the late 19th century but its townlands since then have been subsumed into two distinct DEDs - Killursa and Headford, Co. Galway. It is our intention to record every single household for these two DEDs and make them available online by summer 2001. While examining individual returns is a rewarding experience, especially if one can find a family connection, looking at the 'bigger picture' gives a sense of the huge demographic changes that beset Ireland in the latter half of the 19th century.

Looking at two elements of the townlands in the civil parish of Cargin - namely number of homes and the population in those homes - for the census taken in 1841, 1851, and 1901 - then we can see plainly the drain famine and emigration had on the rural Co. Galway countryside south-west of Headford town. Most who emigrated from here went to the United States and many of those went to Wilmington, DE. From the famine ravaged years of the 1840s to the era of great steamships in the early 20th century, wave after wave, generation after generation left the shores of Lough Corrib to follow their aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbours and friends to a new life on a new shore in the New World. Figure 1 below outlines the details of the Cargin townlands across those 60 years. These figures represent a small section of the west of Ireland during that period - results repeated time and time again in other DEDs also. Cargin alone lost two thirds of its population and over half its homes.

There were a total of 3,221,823 people on the island of Ireland as recorded in the 1901 census - 1,610,085 were males, 1,611,738 females.

This compares with the pre-famine 1841 census of 8,175,124 people!

In 1996, the population of the Irish Republic was 3,626,087 - it had dipped below 2.95 million in 1946 before a long slow recovery. The 2001 census should tell an interesting story as net immigration has been a feature of modern Ireland, with its booming economy, since 1996. However, it has just been announced that due to the threat of Foot and Mouth disease, the 2001 census will not now take place until 2002! This will cause confusion for our descendants when they look back one hundred years from now.

So, on the occasion of the Centenary of the 1901 Census of Ireland, things certainly look a lot brighter for Ireland, population wise at least, than they did one hundred years ago.

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