The Irish Census: Finding my family online

Most of the records were burned in a fire in the Four Courts during the Civil War --But the two saved census records, 1901 and 1911, are now online

PATRICIA HARTY,

Irish America Editor

Published Thursday, March 8, 2012, 8:35 AM

Updated Thursday, March 8, 2012, 8:35 AM

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Census of Ireland 1911

Photo by Census Archives

I keep rechecking the census forms trying to glean some more information -- something I missed. I discover in the 1911 census that Patrick’s widow, Mary Harty, my great grandmother, like my father’s mother, Mary Seymour, spoke English and Irish. And I discover another branch of Hartys that may be my great uncle John’s family.

In the 1901 census, John Harty is listed with two daughters, Bridget, 18, and Kate, 16. This discovery leads me to wonder if John was the one who purchased the land from the Kingsleys. Did my grandfather inherit our farm from his uncle because John’s daughters, as women, would not have been eligible to inherit the land?

There is so much I don’t know.

I turn to check my mother’s family in Waterford, and I get a message that the website is “temporary unavailable” due to maintenance. I wait for a while and try again, but I can't get access. I take it as a message from the ancestors that it’s time to leave things be.

I look out the window and see that night has fallen. The office is empty and I’m astonished that it’s grown so late. I have been in another world and I’m reluctant to leave.

In my mind I see the row of beech trees that were planted many generations ago on the land that became our farm. I can easily imagine some ancestor pausing there under the spreading branches. If only those trees could talk and tell me what they know of those who went before.

I long to know more, but I'm happy for what little I do know, and for the technology that allows me to reach in and probe the mysterious connections to the past.

You can find the Census Records here.

Visit the Irish America website here.

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dukmarshal@aol.com | Mar 10, 2012, 01:44 AM EST

These census reports have been available for well over a year. Why is it we are just hearing of this at IC? Is IC that far behind on the news?

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straydog | Mar 09, 2012, 12:31 PM EST

Where can I get a copies of the 1901 and 1911 census ?

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IrelandNorth | Mar 09, 2012, 06:49 AM EST

The IRA attack on and burning of the Customs House during the War of Independencec, 1921-'22 was designed to obliterate landrecords of English-British landlords in Ireland. From a military point of view it was a logically strategic manouevre to strike a blow at the very heart of English-British occupation. It was an operation which cost them dearly in manpower, which is depicted in poster art work in the foyer of Irish Film Institute in Eustace Street here in Dublin, as is archive film footage of the actual burning itself.

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talbot77 | Mar 08, 2012, 09:19 PM EST

I am very much pleased,as the census(s) will make some of the 'myths' myths !

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carrickcourt | Mar 08, 2012, 05:57 PM EST

Very interesting article on using the Irish census records that do exist for family history research and from one's own desk. I have recently helped my Irish third cousin Ruth do a bit of research on Ruth's mother's family in Ireland. Ruth and I are cousins on our paternal sides. Ruth looking up things online in Ireland and myself helped Ruth by doing a bit of research for her from the USA, mostly using Ancestry. Turns out Ruth had a Longford great great grandfather in Dublin who was a dentist and who was married three times. Ruth is descended from this Longford's second wife. This Longford's first two wife's died before he died in 1885. I often find Irish men having more then one wife in the 19th and early 20th century. Mortality rates were high in Ireland then, especially for women.

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bunkerhill | Mar 08, 2012, 05:26 PM EST

When will Irish immigrants world wide ever recognize that there was no famine? It was genocide pure and simple. The writer seems to state that their land was owned by English and that his or her family lived on a small plot which at that time would have had to be rented. The land that was their birthright had been confiscated by people who partied in London. The most devastating affect of the genocide is only now coming to light along with the deliberate burning of records in the province of Munster. It has come to light in the last thirty years that the Irish (and their worldwide descendents) starved in the mid 1800's, experienced the chromosome changes that so often occur in food deprived populations around the world. The effects of the awful and illegitimate confiscation of land by the royal monsters and their idle friends have left the Irish, along with the English, Dutch and Scandinavians with an awful legacy. Does someone in your family have Huntingtons Chorea, ALS, Parkinsons, Dementia, Compulsive disorders such as alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, overeating and a host of equally dibilitating disorders? That is the legacy the royals passed on in the genodide. The Netherlands received a huge sum to research the chromosome disorders passed on by their WWII starved population. It came from the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation. But then all the royals are related and they know where the money is. There are so many Irish victims both in Ireland and worldwide who need help and much research is in place but as yet no cures have been found. There was plenty of food in Ireland during the "famine" but it was shipped out to England. As Christ said "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall see God."

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