What is a Census Record Search?

CENSUS 1901/1911

What details are included in the Census?

The Censii of Ireland for the years 1901 and 1911 are available for searching at the National Archives of Ireland. If your ancestor was in Ireland when the Census was taken, they should appear on a Census form.

Individual Census forms list the following details in relation to each individual within each household:

1. Name
2. Relationship to the “Head” of the household (eg. wife, daughter, son, grandson, visitor etc).
3. Age
4. ‘Rank or Profession’ – in effect their occupation
5. Marital Status – whether married, single, widowed
6. Religious Denomination (Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Jewish etc.)
7. ‘Education’ – whether they could read or write
8. Place of birth – the county/city of birth is listed for those born in Ireland. The country of birth is listed for those born outside Ireland
9. Proficiency in the Irish and English languages
10. Any infirmity from which they suffered, for example blindness, deafness.

The census also contains a ‘House and Buildings Return’ which gives some information on the family dwelling, including a note of the number of rooms occupied by the household, the quality of construction of the building, the number of windows in the front and the number of out-offices (dairy, barn, stables, etc.)

Within towns and cities the census identifies households by street address, while in the countryside households are identified by townland (the smallest administrative division in Ireland consisting in effect of a small village or group of farms).

A useful additional feature of the 1911 census is a listing of the ‘number of years married’ for all married women listed. There is also a note of the number of children born alive to the marriage and the number of children still living at the time of the census. This information is particularly useful for locating the marriage records of the couples listed in the census. The details provided by the census open up a number of routes for further research such as marriage and birth record searches based on the age and locational information provided.

Click here to order a 1901 Census Record Search with Records Ireland.
Click here to order a 1911 Census Record Search with Records Ireland.