Census 2016 - future genealogy

pinkypinky

So the census campaign has kicked off in earnest this morning. Apparently there'll be no different questions bar a slight change in the marriage question to accommodate same-sex.

I'll be scanning a copy of my completed return for posterity. By which I mean, in case there's another fire.

I wish there was an "any other comments" section for people to write a note in at the end!

Waitsian

pinkypinky wrote:

I'll be scanning a copy of my completed return for posterity. By which I mean, in case there's another fire.

Here's a question for everyone which I've been wondering about of late. Can I access my own census returns under a FOI request? It is mine after all. They're not sealed. The CSO uses them for statistical analysis.

pinkypinky

I doubt it. But it's worth asking them to see the response. The question here "what happens to my data" looks pretty clear.

Waitsian

pinkypinky wrote: »

I doubt it. But it's worth asking them to see the response. The question here "what happens to my data" looks pretty clear.

It is possible in the US apparently, with a fee. Similar requests in the UK have been denied.

I'm going to contact the CSO and see what kind of response I get. I'll report back.

http://www.cso.ie/en/census/censusenquiries/

tabbey

pinkypinky wrote: »

So the census campaign has kicked off in earnest this morning. Apparently there'll be no different questions bar a slight change in the marriage question to accommodate same-sex.

I'll be scanning a copy of my completed return for posterity. By which I mean, in case there's another fire.

I wish there was an "any other comments" section for people to write a note in at the end!

Without breaching confidentiality, what sort of comments did you have in mind?

pinkypinky

tabbey wrote: »

Without breaching confidentiality, what sort of comments did you have in mind?

I hadn't considered it properly but suppose "future descendants : I have done a lot research - look at this place to read a summary"

L1011

The census really isn't the place for that, though.

pinkypinky

L1011 wrote: »

The census really isn't the place for that, though.

Well no but it's a moot point: there is no space for comment.

pedroeibar1

It's about statistics, not genealogy, nobody seems capable of joining dots........A friend of mine is involved on the fieldwork side of this census - a senior role, he started last October, fulltime since then, being trained, learning, planning, working with the trainers, etc. From a brief chat it seemed like a very comprehensive affair. I did not have time to tell him that I thought some of the questions were daft - e.g. "Do you have access to the internet?" - I have, via mobile phone, but that is quite different to fibre!

Jellybaby1

Seeing as how some odd things have turned up on the forms of our ancestors like the person who added their dog to the list of family members, and I'm sure if we were to search through the forms we might see some ad libs here and there. It would be nice to have a place for a message into the future. I may try and think of something of interest to scrawl somewhere but I've not come up with anything clever yet.

pedroeibar1

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I may try and think of something of interest to scrawl somewhere but I've not come up with anything clever yet.

Why not include your Eircode? (.....thinking of the amount of time I've spent trying to match a family to a house...) If Eircodes 'catch on' and remain for the next while it would be invaluable, like 100 year old street directories today.

L1011

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Why not include your Eircode? (.....thinking of the amount of time I've spent trying to match a family to a house...) If Eircodes 'catch on' and remain for the next while it would be invaluable, like 100 year old street directories today.

Its already on the form, filled in by the enumerator.

spurious

An ancestor of mine made an error and filled in her mother's maiden name in one column. It was crossed out by the enumerator, but still legible. Saved me all sorts of work.

mickmackey1

The Census is past its sell by date really, there are so many other ways of collating information at the touch of a button nowadays. Useful for looking back at 1911 yes but nobody's going to be looking back at this one given the amount of electronic info available on all of us.

L1011

mickmackey1 wrote: »

The Census is past its sell by date really, there are so many other ways of collating information at the touch of a button nowadays. Useful for looking back at 1911 yes but nobody's going to be looking back at this one given the amount of electronic info available on all of us.

The "other ways" ended up with the CSO thinking there were about 100000 less people in the country than there actually were in 2011. The paper census is still required to form proper baselines.

tabbey

spurious wrote: »

An ancestor of mine made an error and filled in her mother's maiden name in one column. It was crossed out by the enumerator, but still legible. Saved me all sorts of work.

My paternal line great grandparents gave the townland of origin for one, and adjacent town for the other, thus starting me on genealogy.

Ideally the census should ask us all for such information, but it was never intended for genealogical research.

Alan259

tabbey wrote: »

My paternal line great grandparents gave the townland of origin for one, and adjacent town for the other, thus starting me on genealogy.

Ideally the census should ask us all for such information, but it was never intended for genealogical research.

I have a similar case where everybody in the family gave their townland of origin. Wonderful information.

It's a pity as well that the 1901 or 1911 census didn't give the same information as the 1926 census gave like age in years and months as well as employer's name and address.

pinkypinky

One of my ancestral families wrote the street each person was born on in Dublin.

The fact that the questions changed over time makes it all the more spurious that the CSO won't now change the religion question because it would (I paraphrase) mean they couldn't compare with previous censuses.

snickerpuss

pinkypinky wrote: »

One of my ancestral families wrote the street each person was born on in Dublin.

Oh pinky you are so lucky that's fab! I love your idea of writing a note to future people on it.

Glad I'm not the only one geeking out about the census anyway.

snickerpuss

mickmackey1 wrote: »

The Census is past its sell by date really, there are so many other ways of collating information at the touch of a button nowadays. Useful for looking back at 1911 yes but nobody's going to be looking back at this one given the amount of electronic info available on all of us.

I don't really understand this thinking. I posted the below on a similar topic in legal forum but I think it applies here too:


Really? The fact that most of it is digital means it's ephemeral as I think it's fair to say that long term preservation has yet to be mastered. There will be no letters, diaries or photographs in our family archives most likely. What's left after that? I imagine State bodies now follow data protection in the sense that records are destroyed after a certain amount of time.

I can look up workhouse records, poor relief records, school records and sometimes even employee records (Guinness, Jacobs) but the modern equivalent would be destroyed under data protection

OU812

Just filling mine out now & going to scan it later. Thinking of asking other members of the family to scan theirs also.

pinkypinky

Happy Census night, fellow genealogists.

Coolnabacky1873

The blank space on p.23 is an opportunity to write in some information for future genealogists. It's not too late!

Jellybaby1

Noticed that lovely blank box too!

Jellybaby1

Well I wrote a message to my future generations. I also gave them a little more information on the family which wouldn't fit into the boxes. I didn't do what my daughter suggested which was to write "there is a million euro buried in................." and trail the line down off the page! She had other suggestions which I will pass on when I remember them. She's hilarious.