1911 census - Antrim, Down, Kerry online on Tue 23rd

sweet-rasmus

"The 1911 Census records for Antrim, Down and Kerry will be available online on 23 December 2008"

At last we have a date. I hope they hurry up with the rest.

see http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/about/futureplans.html

interesting to see the decline of the Irish language on both Rathlin Island, Antrim and Valentia island, co. Kerry.

On Rathlin, many people completed the census in Irish, and gave their names etc in Irish, while on Valentia, many people spoke Irish.
I haven't had the time to check how common Irish was in the Glens of Antrim.

interesting that none of the people living on the Blasket Island, wrote the Irish versions of their names, even though a fair few are down as speaking Irish only.

Peig's name is given as Margaret Guiheen

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Kerry/Dunquin/Great_Blasket_Island/

sweet-rasmus

cool well noticed!

Red Hand

Great! Though, there are so many names returned for my grandfather and great grandfather, even in the same parish and townland. Not sure which is which.

hivizman

Just wanted to say thanks for the link - over Christmas I accessed the Census records and showed them to my nephews, who were very interested to see the details of their great-great-grandparents, and to learn that one of their ancestors kept a piggery at the rear of his house in Sandy Row, Belfast. My father had always mentioned that his grandfather had kept pigs, and the Census confirmed it.

Lizzykins

Found my great grandparents in Belfast. I hadn't known their ages or how many children they'd had.

sweet-rasmus

it really is a great resouce. i can't wait until they get all the information up.

Agus

Deleted User wrote: »

interesting to see the decline of the Irish language on both Rathlin Island, Antrim and Valentia island, co. Kerry.

On Rathlin, many people completed the census in Irish, and gave their names etc in Irish, while on Valentia, many people spoke Irish.
I haven't had the time to check how common Irish was in the Glens of Antrim.

I've looked at some parts of Kerry that are well outsiide the current Gaeltacht, and it's interesting to see the language transition where quite often Irish was spoken by many of the more elderly people but only a minority of the younger generation.

tba

Ive managed to find my great grand parents on this, its great! And one great great grandmother at the grand old age of 73 in 1911

Dr Pepper

I love this site. Found a few of my great and great-great grandparents within minutes. Almost brought a tear to my eye to be able to see the actual hand-written documents filled out by by great-great-grandfather(s) almost 100 years ago!

There are a couple of other families which I know were in Dublin at the time and I have names and approx ages but can't seem to find. Hopefully some more clues will emerge when they finish the rest of the country. The sooner that happens, the better!

An gal gréine

There is a significance to the fact that so many Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht filled in their 1911 census forms in the English language. Irish was not taught in schools at this time and so most of them were not literate in their everyday tongue. On Toraigh island, off the Donegal coast, to have literacy in the English language was a huge advantage to the person elected king even though the islanders never spoke other than in Irish. The king could make any representations on their behalf to the authorities in English. Literacy in Irish was even more rare. In Ranafast ( Co. Donegal) arguably the strongest Gaeltacht, the father of the famous Mac Grianna writers,translated all the family member's names into English for this census. The questions, of course, were asked in English and maybe it was felt that it was a requirement to answer in the same language, that there was'nt a choice like today. Priests, peelers,doctors etc. no doubt, were called upon to assist in translations throughout the Gaeltacht.
It is noteworthy, that Irish language enthusiasts in the cities did fill in their forms in Irish.

sweet-rasmus

Ok the website still says that announcement about the 23rd (over a month ago now). http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/about/futureplans.html
does anyone know of a suggested timescale for the next serving of census?

pinkypinky

Well, it was over a year from the first release of Dublin to the release of the next 3 counties, so I wouldn't be holding my breath.

In the meantime, the mormons have scanned all the births, deaths and marriage indexes for Ireland and put them up on a pilot site which is pretty damn good.

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=2;t=searchable;c=1408347

:cool:

sweet-rasmus

Looks good pinkypinky. I found a few hits for a death. But don't know what to trust because I'm after checking how effective it is, but can't find any marriages I already know! Only one check on a death confirms it's effectiveness. Anyone else had any sucess with this?

And I don't like how you pointed out that that was a year long wait for the next few counties. How grim indeed!

pinkypinky

I've ordered some certs based on its information - ones I felt were strong possibilities. I'll let you know how I get on.

tba

I tried a few hits on births, I appear to have gotten them, Marriages however seem to be completely off the mark.

Dr Pepper

Thanks for the link(y) pinkypinky

I've tried 5 or 6 1880's & 90's births that I already have certs for and they're all on it!

I also tried a marriage cert that I found in GRO last week but it's not there. Still though, should be a very handy research tool for births at least.

pinkypinky

My post arrived this morning:

I ordered 5 certs.

2 are correct and I suspect a third is the uncle of the person I was looking for. Two definitely wrong but that could happen in the GRO reading room just as easily!

I'm satisfied the system is correct but I'll be happier when I can see the scanned page myself to ensure no transcription error.

This website is going to cause my own personal recession!

sweet-rasmus

I went in to the GRO to get the photocopies of two of the entries which I thought might be my guy but weren't. So maybe they don't have all the data input... Or maybe I'm just not picking the right guy.

Either way, as I said, I tried to search records I already knew and only 2 of 6 records came up in the search.

pinkypinky

They weren't Northern Ireland post 1922 records, by any chance?
I've read elsewhere on a genealogy board that Familysearch doesn't have access to those.

They issued a press release on Monday about the site and I see they've made a couple of changes (residences have been changed to marriages). I'm happy with it as a tool for doing some of the legwork.

sweet-rasmus

nah, north dublin is my region of interest.

sweet-rasmus

Anyone else notice that the census web page is loading a bit funny, if at all? It's not loading for me tonight. And I checked it a couple of times during the week and the format of the loaded page was not as per usual. No updates on their future plans page, but something is going on.

Ponster

Thanks to pinkypinky's link I have a coupld of certs that I'd love to see but are they really €35 each to order??? It only costs me €9 for birth/marriage/death certs in the UK !

sweet-rasmus

I don't know where you are getting the 35 euro price. Contact the GRO to get the certs http://www.groireland.ie/apply_for_a_cert.htm . I would usually walk in to their office in Dublin City and pay €4 for the photocopy once I have the reference from Family Search, but I think the charge might be 6 if you apply by post.