The National Archives of Ireland (NAI ) took family historians by surprise this week by completing the online release of the 1911 census one month earlier than anticipated. As a result, census returns for 32 counties, including the long-awaited County Westmeath records, are now available to view free of charge at www.census.nationalarchives.ie
Having been beset by delays throughout the last three years, the NAI’s project to digitise the 1901 and 1911 census returns, which is being carried out in a partnership between NAI and Library and Archives Canada, is now back on track.
A statement on the NAI website announced that the existing website would be redeveloped during the next month to include full transcription of all the data on the 1911 household forms. This will make it possible for researchers to look for their more elusive ancestors for whom they hold only partial information. It will also be of huge benefit to social historians and other researchers, not just genealogists. Among the new search fields will be religion, occupation, relationship to head of family, literacy status, marital status, county or country of origin, Irish language proficiency, specified illnesses, and child survival information.
The NAI project will then proceed along similar lines with the 1901 census material, scheduled for release late this year or early next.
When completed, the NAI’s website will offer the world’s largest free online census database.
Claire Santry, editor of www.Irish-Genealogy-Toolkit.com, an online guide to Irish genealogy and heritage, described this as a very happy day for the 70 million-strong diaspora and for anyone searching for their ancestors in Ireland.
“Free access to the 1911 census and its index is a huge bonus to researchers, many of whom will have previously hit brick walls because they didn’t know exactly where in Ireland their ancestors lived. The searchable index to the census is therefore a terrific aid and will help flatten some of those walls entirely.”
She adds that researchers should not make the mistake of assuming the 1911 census is irrelevant to them because their ancestor had already emigrated or relocated within the island by that date.“There may still be vital clues in the records. There may, for example, be other family members – grandparents, parents, siblings – who remained in the ancestral home and were recorded in the returns.”
