Dublin City Census 1911
It was great to see the long-anticipated digitised, free access Census of Ireland Dublin 1911 go live just before Christmas. This initiative undertaken by the National Archives of Ireland in collaboration with Library and Archives Canada is part of a larger project to digitise, index and contextualise the 1901 and 1911 censuses of Ireland. So, how does it shape up?
The census can be reviewed in two ways. If you know the name of the person you are looking for, you can enter their details into the search page. Simply click on ’search’ and all matches are displayed. Click onto a match you want to look at more closely and you are taken to a transcription of all the occupants of that particular house. If you click on the Household Return (Form A) link, you will be taken to a PDF copy of the entry.
If you want to get a feel for the neighbourhood in which this family lived, or if you are studying a particular locality, you can use the browse function. Click on Dublin and you will see a list of all the DEDs (District Electoral Divisions). Select one, such as Arran Quay, and you will see all the streets (or townlands) that fall within this division. By clicking on ‘Arklow Street’, you can see a list of all the heads of household for that street and click into each residence in order to view other household members.
So far this is very impressive. It would have been perfect had it been possible to search on other datasets contained within the census however. For instance, I was recently researching the Jewish community in Dublin and it would have been great to be able to search by ‘religion.’ In the same way a search on ‘where born’ could provide an understanding of the role of migration. Nevertheless, both migration and religion are addressed in the themes section of the site.
Edited by Catriona Crowe, the themes section provides some wonderful context. It incorporates a commentary about the city and various aspects of life there in 1911 such as poverty and health, commerce, education and sport. Each theme includes links to census extracts for particular households or buildings that are described, and is illustrated with contemporary photographs. It really enables the researcher to imagine what Dublin must have been like in 1911. There is even a page describing what happened on the day of the census. The only criticism is that there is no left-hand navigation in the themes section, so you have to keep returning to the main page but this is just a minor issue.
In any project like this there will probably be some errors; it is not clear what the error rate is in this case, but if you happen to spot a transcription that you think is incorrect, the National Archives suggest that you complete this form hosted on their website, and they will update the information in the next build.
The digitisation could have been carried out quicker and at a lower cost by other organisations, who would no doubt have been able to recoup their costs very quickly were they to charge for access in the way that Ancestry.co.uk or Irish Origins do. However, the National Archives’ goals are to preserve documents and enable access to them, rather than to make money; by making the census freely accessible via the internet they are certainly ensuring that it is easy for anyone with an interest in Irish history to review this important source. There is a lot more to go online yet, so it is hoped that future updates are of the same high standard.
All in all, this is a wonderful resource, the only drawback being that it has taken longer than anticipated to go live. It provides just the right balance between the source itself and the context. The next area to go online, according to the National Archives website, is Kerry - great news for those of you with an interest in the Kingdom…
January 18th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Please give details of family preceding Mr.James Darcy who resided at the Dew Drop Inn in Milltown at time of census.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
i am looking for any relations to my motherinlaw patricia darcy her father james darcy mother mary oates had a drapers shop in dobbin street armagh patricia’s brothers and sisters were micheal fred alfie marcella ethne florrie and hilda who was a nun
if not connected how do i go about trying to trace family tree
many thanks
Lorian
November 25th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Ihave try to trace the birth or death off my g/g/father his wife was a agnes stafford his name was lewis james costello thy were married before
1870 lewis was a jeweller by trade where do you think i should look now
there must be a record of him somewere thy only lived around Dublin
hope someone can help
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Are we talking about Mr James Darcy (1887 to 1951) of the Dew Drop inn, Milltown, Dublin?
He was my Grandfather and would have been there for the 1911 census. His wife was Margaret Nee Fitzpatrick , I think she originally from Wicklow.
The DewDrop was originally an Inn owned by Mr Tom Hacket and later sublet to James Darcy, there were other families there including the Popes (British Army) and Creedons (who was a Barber).
January 10th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Thank you so much for this wonderful work on the 1911 census!
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:20 pm
[…] a number of different perameters - I commented that this would be really handy in my profile of the 1911 census for Dublin as it would enable all kinds of analysis, so am really pleased they have decided to do […]
June 10th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
my g/g aunt she died in 1987 age 90 something she lived in henieta street dublin with her brother ned she never maried i would like to no more about her history she raised my father from a very young age