Irish 1901 Census Published Online

For those who haven’t heard the news already, the 1901 Irish Census was set live today. It’s hosted on the National Archives of Ireland website, which you can access for free here.

These records comprise 850,000 households on the entire island, and make up the earliest surviving and complete census of Ireland. They come after the release of the 1911 records, which since 2007 have attracted over seven million unique users.

These records are even more important because of the paucity of census data for Ireland before the 1930s. Most of the census records from the 19th Century have been destroyed, some in a fire at the Public Records Office in 1922, and others pulped because of a paper shortage during the First World War.

Digitization of the records cost almost €4 million, and the work was carrired by the Irish National Archives with the assistance of Library and Archives Canada over a five year period.

It’s a fantastic new resource, and should hopefully be very welcome for those of us with Irish roots.