Tracing One’s Roots

Post date: Apr 04, 2011 1:58:9 PM

Most people, at some stage in their lives, will try to trace their ancestors and find out as much as possible about them. President Obama told us in his fine book, Dreams of my Father, how important it was for him to trace his African-American roots. He even plans to explore an Irish link in his maternal ancestry in May 2011.

Tracing one’s Irish roots has been facilitated in recent times by the recent online publication of the 1901 and 1911 censuses by the National Archives, which has generated considerable interest around the world. A census of population was taken in Ireland every ten years from 1821 until 1911. The first four were almost completely destroyed in a fire in the Public Record Office (now the National Archive of Ireland) in 1922, while those from 1861 to1891 had been destroyed earlier. The complete manuscript returns of the census for each household in the thirty- two counties survive for1801 and 1911 and are now one of the main sources of family history in Ireland. On August 28, 2009, the complete 1911 census returns for the thirty-two counties of Ireland taken on April 2 of that year were released free online. The 1901 census returns taken on March 31 that year became available free online from June 2010.

Digitisation and placement on a website have facilitated access from any part of the world. The census returns are arranged by county, district electoral division (a sub-division of Poor Law Unions) and townland or street in respect of a town or city. There is a separate form for each household (Form A), which contains a record of all the members or guests of the household who were present on the night of the census, stating their names, age, gender, relationship to the head of the household, religion, occupation, marital status and county or country of birth. It also records the ability of each person to read or write, to speak the Irish language and information on infirmities.

The form was signed by the head of each household (it is interesting to see the signature of an ancestor from that time), or by recording an ‘X’ if he/she was unable to write. The information recorded on the forms for each household was summarised by the enumerator on forms for each town and/or street (forms B1 and N). A separate form (Form B2) provides details of houses, including the number of windows, type of roof and number of rooms in each house in the town land or street.

Only members of the household present in a house on the census night are recorded. If a person’s name is not recorded it may be possible to trace him/her in the house of a relative or some other likely place like a boarding school or a hospital. The following information facilitates easy access to the 1901 and 1911 census returns:

• • County

  • Parish

• District Electoral Division

• Townland

  • Surname (There can be a number of families with the same surname in a townland)

  • Personal name of ancestor