Census records are vital for piecing your ancestors’ lives together, and are particularly useful for building a timeline of someone’s life.
Ordinarily, a person’s census returns, taken every 10 years or so, helps to build a picture of where they lived, who they lived with, how they made a living, when their children were born, and other helpful information.
Unfortunately, this is not true of Irish census records. Ireland currently has just two full censuses available for genealogical research – those from 1901 and 1911.
You can find fragments of the 19th-century censuses on the National Archives website, and you can search them on the new Census website.
The first complete Census of Ireland took place in 1821, and a census was taken every 10 years up to 1911. So, what happened to these earlier censuses?
Well, it’s complicated.
1821 to 1851 censuses
Like a lot of Irish historical records, the first four censuses – covering the period from 1821 to 1851 – were kept in the Public Records Office in the Four Courts in Dublin. And, like a lot of records, they were substantially destroyed in a fire and explosion in the Public Records Office in the opening battle of the Civil War on 28 June, 1922.
Fragments of these early censuses survived the fire, and can be viewed on the National Archives website. And they really are fragments. For example, the 1831 Census fragment for Antrim contains the details of just one person – William Hamilton of Poleglass, Derriaghey, Upper Belfast. And Antrim is one of just two counties for which 1831 Census records survived.
However, these fragments are still worth browsing if you have reason to believe your ancestors may be in them. The following counties are represented in the various census fragments – but bear in mind that the coverage is far from complete.
1821: Antrim, Carlow, Cavan, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Kilkenny, King’s County (Offaly), Limerick, Mayo, Meath.
1831: Antrim, Londonderry (Derry).
1841: Antrim, Carlow, Cavan, Cork, Dublin, Fermanagh, Limerick, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, Queen’s County (Laois), Tyrone, Westmeath, Wicklow.
1851: Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Kerry, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick, Londonderry (Derry), Longford, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Queen’s County (Laois), Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow.
Despite their very fragmentary nature, you can still find useful information in these censuses. I was lucky enough to find my 3x great grandparents, Peter and Mary Mullin, and their children, including my 2x great grandfather John Mullin, recorded in their home in Eochail, Arainn, Co Galway in the 1821 Census. You might be lucky too.
The records provide some fascinating insights into life in 19th century Ireland. The 1841 and 1851 censuses, taken four years before, and towards the end of, the Great Famine, included members of the household who were alive, but elsewhere on Census night.
Both censuses also included details of those people who had died since the last census was taken. These records can be particularly poignant in 1851, during a period that saw Ireland’s population decimated by starvation, disease and emigration.
1861 to 1891 censuses
The creation of the first Ordnance Survey map of Ireland in the 1840s – based on the first ever large-scale survey of an entire country – meant the information gathered in later censuses was of significant statistical value. However when it comes to census records from the latter half of the 19th century, even less survives.
A census was taken in 1861, but the entire census was destroyed at some point after it was taken. It appears the British government saw no further use for the census once it had extracted all available statistical information from the records.
Just one fragment of the 1861 census survives – a transcript of the Catholics in the parish of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, which is available to read on the National Library of Ireland website.
The 1871 Census was also destroyed by the government. Just two fragments survive – from the civil parishes of Drumcondra and Loughbracken in Co Meath, both of which can be viewed on the Irish Genealogy Projects Archives.
By 1881, the British government presumably saw the value of holding on to its Irish census records, and the 1881 and 1891 censuses did not suffer the same fate as those of the previous two decades.
At least, not immediately.
It appears that, during World War I, Britain suffered a shortage of paper. As wars tend to produce a lot of records, a number of older records were pulped to create new paper; these records included the 1881 and 1891 censuses of Ireland. Nothing remains of these censuses.
Census fragments and substitutes
The loss of Ireland’s 19th century census records is a barrier to genealogical research, but it’s not insurmountable. We have a number of 19th century records which, while not as comprehensive as census records, serve as census substitutes.
These include Griffith’s Valuation, the Tithe Applotment Books, and the 1841 and 1851 Census Search Forms.
Census fragments
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, which is dedicated to finding copies of the archives lost in the fire at the 1922 Public Records Office, is working to add to the available Census fragments as part of its remit. It has just released an update to the 1821 Census, adding 60,000 names to the available records. These can be viewed via the Virtual Treasury website, but are not searchable.
Census fragments published before this latest update are searchable on the recently updated National Archives website.
You can also browse these fragments on the old National Archives site, but it’s not clear how long this site will be available.
Returns from the 1926 Census will be released in April 2026 under the 100-year rule, so I assume the National Archives is upgrading its Census site in preparation for this.
1841 and 1851 Census Search Forms
Details of some people listed in the 1841 and 1851 Censuses can be found in the Census Search Forms. These forms were filled out by people applying for the Old Age Pension in the early 20th century.
Civil registration of births was introduced in Ireland in 1864. This meant that people applying for the Old Age Pension when it was introduced in 1909 did not have birth certificates as proof of age. One way around this was the use of the 1841 and 1851 Censuses. Applicants filled out search forms to enable pension assessors to locate them in these Censuses – the information provided included the appicant’s parents’ names, and the family’s address when the Census was taken.
If you can find your ancestor in these forms, you will also find the names of their parents and, if you’re lucky, some siblings. However, the forms were only completed by people who were children in 1841 and/or 1851, and still alive to apply for the Old Age Pension from 1909 on.
Feature image: Thatched cottages in Adare, Co Limerick, built in the 1820s by the Earl of Dunraven to accommodate people working on his estate. The earl’s former home is now Adare Manor, and the cottages are still occupied.