Census archives from 1800s released online

Family trees have just sprung a lot more branches thanks to the latest release of genealogical records from the National Archives.

Census and related documents from the 19th century containing details of more than 600,000 people have been placed online on three websites where they can be accessed free of charge.

The latest release follows the massive success of last year’s online publication of the 1901 and 1911 census which have just recorded their one billionth hit and have 20m individual site visitors around the world.

Catriona Crowe, head of special projects at the National Archives, said the appetite for family history was enormous. “The Irish diaspora is 70m and it seems an awful lot of them want to know about their ancestors.”

The records placed online last night include fragments of the census records from 1821 to 1851 that survived the disastrous fire at the Public Record Office in 1922.

“The 1821 records are particularly strong for Cavan, Meath, and Galway, there’s a huge amount of material for Derry in the 1831 records, and the 1841 and 1851 are more evenly if more thinly spread,” said Ms Crowe.

But there are also census search forms for all 32 counties which use details extracted from the 1841 and 1851 census to check the validity of old age pension claims made in 1908.

“There is a myth that the 1922 fire destroyed everything pre-1900 and it was a terrible loss.

“For example, if we had the full 1841 census, we would have the names of the 8m who lived here before the famine which would be mind boggling.

“But a lot more survives than people think and what we are in the business of is trying to fill gaps and give people as much as we can of anything that survives.”

The latest release of records is being done in conjunction with two private companies — Find My Past, the Irish branch of the UK firm, and Family Search, run by the Church of the Latter Day Saints in the US which has been collecting records worldwide since the 1950s.

Familysearch.org copied the records on to microfilm and findmypast.ie indexed everything. “We have no money for big digitisation projects,” Ms Crowe explained. “We did during the boom and that’s why we were able to get the 1901 and 1911 records online but now we have to get creative.

“The quid pro quo for the private companies is that they get access to other National Archive material which they can charge subscriptions for, for the next five years.”

The collaboration is continuing for the next big release of data which expands on the information in Griffith’s Valuation. The valuation, carried out between 1848 and 1860 to levy the forerunner of today’s local property tax, is already online but only gives the heads of each household.

The ‘house books’ and ‘land books’ compiled for the valuation detail the size and type of houses and the extent and nature of the land, along with other information, will all be going online in a few months.

In the meantime, the 1800s material is available free of charge on nationalarchives.ie, findmypast.ie, and familysearch.org