Harriet Wheelock / Monday 14 June 2010

1901 Census goes live

Earlier this month the National Archive of Ireland launched the 1901 census returns online, adding to the huge amount of material already available from the 1911 census. The launch of the 1901 census, especially as the service is being offered free, is a huge bonus to local, family and social historians.

The basic search allows users to search either census by surname, forename, county, townland, electoral district, age and sex, or any combination. Additional search criteria, based on the other information recorded in the form, can be used to further refine the search, for example by religion, literacy, occupation or county of origin. From a medical history point of view it is interesting to note it is possible to search by the specified illness category, these are; deaf, dumb, deaf and dumb, blind, idiot, imbecile, lunatic or other. This search functions offers interesting possibilities for quickly establishing some figures relating to these illness, the spread across counties, as well as age and gender ranges. The census returns could also throw light on the extent to which care was given in the home.

These additional search criteria can be very helpful in tracing an individual, if you are unsure of some of the information relating to them. I tried to find a William O'Connell in the 1911 census, but I had no idea where in the country he lived. A search for William O'Connell in the 1911 census produced 222 hits, refining it by his age in 1911, about 55, left 19 options, but once I put in the country of origin in the additional search terms field I had a winner.

As the house and building forms and out offices and farm-steadings return forms are also included I could find out that William and his three servants, lived in a house with 13 rooms, 5 windows in the front of the house and 5 out buildings. All of which seems to indicate he was doing very well for himself.
One of features I particularly noticed was the opportunity for users to submit corrections to any mistakes made in the transcriptions, for approval by the National Archive. Given the huge quantity of material, and the variation in the legibility of scripts mistakes are inevitable and this seems an extremely sensible feature, and a sensible way to harness the collective knowledge.