Townland Survey, 1851

Ostrom

If anyone may have had reason to consult these documents at some point, I'd appreciate a second opinion.

The General Alphabetical Index accompanying the 1851 census of Ireland (H.C. 1862 [2942] - the one linking to plate numbers of the six inch OS), contains a column identifying the 'Volume and Page Number of the Townland Census of 1851' for each townland and town in the index.

I have (I think) all volumes of the 1851 census, including the agricultural returns, and volumes on education, disease etc. Is this 'Townland Census' a separate volume? I cant seem to find any reference to it in the online HC database. I have a shorter document listing 1841-1851 population change at union and ED level (I have worked at this level of aggregation for my thesis, as figures from other documents I need to include in my model are only listed at union level).

Is there another volume of the 1851 census which returns 1841-1851 population figures for townlands? It is annoying me slightly, as there are one or two specific locations I would like to check out for the sake of completion.

pinkypinky

I'm really confused by your post.

Only fragments of the 1851 returns survive (but the statistical data exists still).

The townlands index is a large one volume book detailing all townlands and locating them by parish/barony/civil parish/county etc and sizes.

The whole thing is indexed on http://www.seanruad.com/

The NLI and Pearse St library have book copies. It also occasionally turns up on ebay.

shanew

efla wrote: »

....
Is there another volume of the 1851 census which returns 1841-1851 population figures for townlands? It is annoying me slightly, as there are one or two specific locations I would like to check out for the sake of completion.

there are townland level stats. published for some counties and census years ... not sure if 1841 stats. are available but some of the details I've seen (1851 to 1911 for South Dublin and Wicklow) include figures from the previous census as comparison.

Eneclann have digitized some of these and are available on CD

e.g. http://www.eneclann.ie/acatalog/Census_reports-monaghan.html


Shane

Ostrom

pinkypinky wrote: »

I'm really confused by your post.

Only fragments of the 1851 returns survive (but the statistical data exists still).

The townlands index is a large one volume book detailing all townlands and locating them by parish/barony/civil parish/county etc and sizes.

The whole thing is indexed on http://www.seanruad.com/

The NLI and Pearse St library have book copies. It also occasionally turns up on ebay.

Sorry, should have been clearer! I'm working from aggregate data only (i.e. comparing poor law unions on summary scores such as proportion of holdings 1-5 acres, extent of common holding etc.), and as such, the data within the published abstracts are sufficient. I'm not working with any of the enumerators documents, aside from the surviving fragments from Aran of the 1821 census.

I have copied relevant sections of the townland index for my own work, as I am taking a closer look at certain areas, and the right-most column alludes to a separate four-volume 'townland survey' which it says contains data on population change 1841-1851 (this data is not listed in the townland index)

CeannRua

I'm not very clear either what you mean but is it something like the below - it gives population in 1841 and 1851 at townland level? If this is it, there are docs for other counties on same website.

http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/13271/eppi_pages/161891

Ostrom

Thats it exactly, thanks! (the confusion may be that my use of the summary statistics has little to do with geneaology). I'm just looking to (crudely) measure change in average household size and population in certain townlands between 1841 and 1851, and needed the figures on buildings to do so. Although I'm doubtful such a measure is any way valid.

Thanks for all the replies!