Teething problems with Free State Army census

The country’s only military census, of the Free State Army in 1922 went online yesterday — but many people could not view the data because of a technical problem.

The census, launched on militaryarchives.ie yesterday, shows two maps of the country[/url] through which details of individual divisions and commands could be accessed.

However, many people were advised of the site “having a temporary problem generating a view of the document”. Viewers were asked to try again later.

A spokesperson for the Military Archives said they had been notified by a number of people of the problems accessing the data.

The difficulties, it is believed, may have been due to the sheer number of people seeking to access the website yesterday.

Browsing the 1922 Irish Army Census records. Unindexed, and a long shot to find my lot, but peeking at the Dublin lists http://t.co/tmtTsymE

— Vivienne Dunstan (@vivdunstan) November 13, 2012

Michael Collins had been the army’s first commanding officer.

The documents detail the names of all personnel based in various locations during the Civil War and were first compiled months after the death of Collins, shot in the Béal na mBláth ambush in Aug 1922 by anti-treaty forces.

The digitisation of the census has not yet been fully completed and, ultimately, there will be a function that will allow people to search the lists by name, rather than geographical location.

The data on the site derives from 10 volumes of census returns that were originally bound in leather and card and arranged alphabetically by post.

It follows the hugely successful publication of the national censuses from 1901 and 1911 and a growing interest in genealogy.

A spokesperson for the Military Archives said yesterday it was hoped any problems with the 1922 military census will have ceased by today.