A family secret revealed in 1901 Irish census
By: Niall O'Dowd | Published Thursday, June 17, 2010, 6:38 PM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:42 PM
The 1901 census has just gone up on line providing an incredible insight into the
Ireland so many of our ancestors left.
It’s at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie
The 1911 census, which went up about a year ago attracted 7 million views and I’m sure this 1901 census will attract as many.
Of the many deeds the Irish government has done to attract interest in Ireland I firmly believe putting the 1911 and 1901 censuses on line will prove to be the most important.
For millions of Irish Americans it allows a sacred moment, a second to touch the past and to see the ancestors or relatives they have only dimly glimpsed through the mists of time.
Alas, there are no censuses available form the previous century, all were either burned or lost. So 1901 will remain the touchstone.
On the 1901 census my wife Debbie, found her great grandfather Martin McGoldrick living on the family farm in
Sligo. For some reason the 1911 census seemed to miss his little village.
I could tell by her reaction just how deep and significant moment it was
It is an amazing document that allows us to reach out and touch the past on a given night on a given year in Ireland.
For my own part it was like revisiting a familiar fireside. I had seen the 1911 census count, marveled at the information I had been able to glean, including my first glimpse of my great grandfather and turned to the 1901 census feeling like I was seeing a movie rewound.
It is the 31st of March 1901 and in the Dowd house in Kilcooley,
County Kerry, (there was no O’ used back then) seven miles or so west of Dingle there are 13 people living in the three –roomed residence. (the photograph above is of the view from Kilcooley to the Atlantic.)
It is five years before my father is born there.
There is my great grandfather, Ned, 60, hale and hearty and his three sons and one daughter, including Daniel Dowd who my father would be called after.
There too is my grandfather, Michael, married to Kate Kennedy, and they have three very young children, John, Maggie and Mary.
Maggie intrigues me. I had never heard of her and she does not appear in the 1911 census. Clearly she passed away sometimes in the next decade. From what I will never know, but my father never spoke of her.
Suddenly realizing I had an Aunt Maggie who did not live fills me full of curiosity about her. What happened, why was it never spoken about?
It was certainly not unusual for people to pass away back then in the age before antibiotics but it is a sad moment to realize I lost a relative so young.
John Dowd, the oldest son in my father’s family is there. He is called Jack and will later leave for
America. He will settle in
Detroit and work for the Ford motor Company his whole life.
He will have triplets, so rare an event that they are featured in several national magazines and I will get to know them
In 1981 I will visit him in Detroit, in the little suburban bungalow he has made his home in. He will press $20 into my hand in an envelope, as all emigrants did for new arrivals back then.
He will ask me what fields are they planting back home but I am no longer from Kerry and am unable to answer. He is the spitting image of my father.
John’s older sister, Mary, also made her way to America and Detroit but I never had the opportunity to meet her. She would die in a traffic accident.
The census has once again re-wakened all these echoes and made me aware once again of how lucky my generation was with our access to education and life choices, these relatives would only have dreamt of.
And then there’s my dead little aunt Maggie who I will never know. She is a poignant postscript to reading about my father’s family in the 1901 census.
May she rest in peace.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.ray bass | Jan 11, 2013, 12:16 PM EST
My great great grandparents (and their family)left County Wexford before the American Civil War, but there's a little girl, Sarah, born in 1850 in Scotland, who never made it to America ... I wonder if she was born where she was (the only child born outside of Wexford) because the family was trying to avoid the Great Famine ? Problem is that I will never know..... Still, I now know that she lived, that I had an aunt Sarah .. that's something, anyway.
Mickwall | Apr 05, 2011, 03:27 PM EDT
I don't often leave comments but have to say this is a terrific piece. I felt I was living through the story with you
suethenurse | Jun 11, 2010, 02:22 PM EDT
Well written. Thought provoking. Poignant. I enjoyed this article.
mandokeith | Jun 11, 2010, 01:44 PM EDT
The census is a wonderful gift to all who have roots in Ireland. So sad the earlier times were lost.
JimThompson | Jun 10, 2010, 01:31 PM EDT
Did not realise that we could get to Irish records like this. Will now try to identify kion through my Grandmother who came from Ireland to the U. S.
PatriciaNolan | Jun 10, 2010, 01:26 PM EDT
Hello, I live in Tralee about forty miles from Kilcooley, Ballydavid. Like you I am interested in the census. Two of my Uncles emigrated in 1926 and 1930. Although Uncle Dannie had been a teacher, his Mother (my grandmother) did not have 200 pounds to enable him attend Teacher Training in Ireland in 1922/1923. My Uncle John had been an insurance agent (lucrative job here later) and he too emigrated. They had an Aunt in Waterbury who sponsored both of them also other first cousins from more families. Is this your family in Kilcooley , Niall ?? Were you born in Ireland ? I had been visiting these relations in 1969 and read your articles back then. Going back to census I too think it's amazing to be able to look it up, it really brings these people back to life.
belfastgirl1 | Jun 09, 2010, 07:36 PM EDT
I found my Granddad and Grandmother in the 1911 census along with my Fathers siblings, all living in Antrim. My Dad was born in 1912.. in Belfast, as was I. and my Granddad. My Dads Mum and siblings were all born in Galway. I can not find them in the 1901 census, anywhere in Ireland. Very frustrating. I will have to dig deeper..
bonnstock2 | Jun 09, 2010, 03:30 PM EDT
Sure and begorra, you Irish folks is making a big t"ing of this census. 1901, 1911. How come you be doing it on the odd years??? bonn2
Sharont6 | Jun 09, 2010, 12:23 PM EDT
I have found out similar events in my Grandfather's family and I had good results with a geneologist search of his family. I never knew him but through these records I get a glimse of him. I just wish I could find out something on my Grandmother, the only grandparent I knew, her life prior to 1920 is a mystery.
NancyLou9 | Jun 09, 2010, 12:10 PM EDT
What a nice article! I was unaware the census (censi? Censuses?) were available online. I did note that, sadly, prior to 1901, no records are available. I have a family name that is rumored to be Irish. I can only go back as far as 1853 to find them in the US and was hoping to learn more "pre-1850" using, perhaps, records from Ireland.
katielady | Jun 09, 2010, 11:39 AM EDT
For so many I think this is wonderful.. A few years ago I took what papers I had of my grandfather's when I went to Dunroven in Waterford. He obtained US citizenship in 1886 and the information lacked the village and copy of the birth record for him. My plan was to gain dual citizenship and maybe have a home in Ireland. Alas, the village and church records that we would have needed to prove his specific birthplace in Ireland are all gone. All of my grandmother's records are lost as well. My mother's parents were born here and her grandparents came as children.
imuverin | Jun 09, 2010, 11:06 AM EDT
This is very good information for us tracing our Heritage in Ireland, I found my Father in the 1911 Census living in Quilty Co. Clare which I always knew. But in the 1901 Census, which is 8 years before my Father was born, my Grandparents and my Fathers older Siblings, lived in a Village 6 miles away which I did not know. I was told that my Grandparents always lived in Quilty, I must continue my search.
cometoshannon | Jun 09, 2010, 11:02 AM EDT
Hi Niall - yes the Census opens up some fascinating information for us. Don't forget it is also possible that Aunt Maggie was visiting somewhere on the night of the census as I discovered when checking for the 14th member of a cousin's family - her name showed up at her Aunt's house on the night of the census and introduced us to another line of cousins - also for anyone looking for Clare relatives, the Genealogy section of www.clarelibrary.ie is fascinating.
laallyboy | Jun 09, 2010, 09:45 AM EDT
Yes, there are quite a few of the O'Dubhda to be found in Kerry, often called "Doody" or "Duddy" down there. Most of the name are from Co. Sligo, where they were chiefs of Tireragh and patrons of the great MacFirbis family of scholars (i.e., Book of Lecan) for many centuries. I wonder if the Munster families are orig.from the same clann, as many northerners went to Munster with the Ulster chiefs around 1600, and stayed after Kinsale (e.g., there are lots of O'Donnells and MacSweeneys in Munster, but they are orig. Donegal people).
madelane | Jun 09, 2010, 09:35 AM EDT
I think most people who check the census for their family information will learn something new. I learned that my great-grandfather was dead by 1901, leaving my great-grandmother the job of raising her 5 children alone, and what I found sad was by 1911 my great-grandmother was all alone, all the children had left. Each family has their secrets, sometimes we learn bits and pieces of information, sometimes we learn a lot , but then there are those times when we learn nothing, and what we want to know stays a mystery, a door slammed shut.
heybuldog69 | Jun 09, 2010, 09:25 AM EDT
It Takes a Village.
DLW12183 | Jun 09, 2010, 09:22 AM EDT
Does anybody know a good geneoligist for Sligo County as my grandfather immigrated in the early 1880's and his older siblings that stayed behind have very common first names? I would like to go forward to see what what relatives I still have in the area. Thanks
carrickcourt | Jun 09, 2010, 09:16 AM EDT
Nice to have the 1901 census now available with the 1911 census. While my people being long gone from Ireland by 1901 it was interesting to see the census forms for distant kin in Ireland. Niell, nice for you to find more about kin in the census who you knew in person. The 1901 census revealed a cousin of my Irish granddad's who died before the 1911 census. One of the 1911 records for a family I was interested in had three generations living together. A goldmine for genealogy research to say the least. I suspect that was the case with Niell's family too. I do have a bit of possible scandal in one household I found in the 1911 census that I still have to figure out.
lisammc | Jun 09, 2010, 09:13 AM EDT
My grandmother's town was misspelled in the 1911 census (Ennistymon vs Ennistimon) so it took me a while to find it. I finally just put in my great grandfather's name and searched through all the Michael Gallaghers in Clare in 1911 until I found them. My other grandmother's town also was misspelled in the 1911 census (Miltown Malbay vs. Miltownmalbay) and her last name was spelled differently but eventually I found her family as well - and now know she shaved 5 years off her age!!!
TheYank | Jun 09, 2010, 05:18 AM EDT
No doubt about it the census is tremendous. And the Irish government is to be applauded for putting it all online for free. Too many other state bodies have sold their records to Ancestry.com or whomever in order to profit from these records, but the Irish government realizes the importance of family and connecting to the Irish outside Ireland.