Civilised countries started to take national censuses for much the same demographic reasons which we continue the practice today. Rulers or governments wanted to understand population fluctuations, or the religious beliefs and ethnic backgrounds of their peoples, or the educational standards of the time.
Some towns or regions conducted their own irregular censuses, but most countries eventually adopted a common system of carrying out a national census of the population on a given date, and then repeating the exercise every 10 years thereafter. The surviving archived census papers provide an invaluable tool for genealogists to track the ancestry or development of families in each decade.
Each participating nation has differing privacy laws concerning when the census data can be made fully accessible to the public, in return for a search fee or otherwise. Some countries do not like to publicise personal details of their residents whilst they are living, so a 100 year wait before publication is insisted upon. Others are more relaxed about their census detail content, and adopt a method of protecting data collected about adults only, so the publication time lag is reduced to around 75 years.
Most countries commenced with a regular census format early in the 19th century. Census years commonly end in 0 or 1, and the date is often a relevant day in the first half of the year. National collections of census papers can have dramatic omissions in terms of completeness. This has occurred because of poor methods of archiving volumes of vulnerable paper documents over many years, or because the storage location was not ideal in hindsight. Usually a central government building was used to archive census paperwork and subsequent political upheavals led to these vital records getting lost or destroyed, accidentally and sometimes deliberately.
Ireland as a relatively small nation suffered more census record losses than most, making it quite difficult to locate useful census data for family history research of Irish ancestors. Currently the 1901 census returns can only be inspected in full by visiting the National Archives building in Dublin. Only fragments of prior 19th century census papers remain intact. We recommend that you don’t even attempt to search for relevant Irish census records until you have a detailed knowledge of your ancestor’s immediate family and/or a likely residency address in either 1901 or 1911. Having said that, Irish Ancestry Research offers to undertake worldwide census reviews based upon whatever information you can supply on the Ancestor Query form.
The UK, USA and Canada retain good collections of past censuses, some dating back to the early 19th century and before. In America, the federal censuses were conveniently undertaken at the start of each new decade, i.e. 1820, 1830, 1840, etc. The first full federal census is still in existence for 1790. The only major omission from current archives is the census for 1890 which was all but totally destroyed in a fire at WashingtonDC. The English government took its first national census in 1801, but an absence of individual’s names does not make UK censuses of any use to genealogists until the year 1841.
Information to be found on census forms varies greatly, but is generally highly informative. There could be spelling mistakes and even duplications due to errors made by census enumerators. Also take note that the ages of persons on a census return may have been rounded up by as much as 5 years or guessed at by a poorly educated householder. Useful information might include any of the following categories. Ask Irish Ancestry Research for clarification of what could be discovered about your ancestor(s) from Census Records.
Full Name – Age – Address – relationship to Head of Household
Birth year – Birth month – Birth date
Number of living children – number of all children (often much higher)
Number of marriages – length of current marriage
Occupation or Role in Family
Place of birth – nationality – parent’s nationalities
Naturalization place and date – Immigration place and date
Ability to read or write – medical or mental disabilities
Religion – Ethnic group – Languages spoken
Includes medical institutions, prisons, barracks, boarding schools, etc
