Release Date for 1926 Census !UPDATE!

BowWow · 16-11-2022 05:10PM #1

This just popped up on Irish Genealogy - Great News !

Link - Release date for the 1926 Census of Ireland announced

The Irish Government has today announced that the 1926 Census of Ireland will be released online and free in April 2026. The project will be carried out by the National Archives of Ireland.

This is music to many Irish genealogists ears because, with the clock ticking down and no official word about the necessary digitisation getting underway, many researchers had become a bit twitchy about whether its publication would be on time. We had false promises from politians back in 2016 about an early release, and we've signed petitions a-plenty since, but at least we can now look forward to the timely arrival of the material. It won't be early. It will be on time.

Some €5M in state funding is being provided for the digitisation and publication project, which will involve the release of more than 700,000 individual return sheets containing data from the 26 Republic of Ireland counties. The 1926 Census was the first census undertaken following the foundation of the state, and gathered information on the population's age, occupation, religion, houseing and use of the Irish language.

It was taken on 18 April 1926, when the population stood at 2,971,992, down 5.3% on the previous census in 1911. Only County Dublin recorded an increase in its number of inhabitants; all other counties recorded a loss.

In 1926, a total of 92.6% of the population was Catholic and 18.3% could speak Irish. Of those employed, 51% were in agricultural occupations, 4% were fisherman, 14% were in manufacturing and 7% were domestic servants. Very different times. Details are available at the Central Statistics Office website.

Speaking at the official announcement today, Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, said: "The €5M funding will provide for the complex, time consuming and multistage process to digitise all of the information collected by the first census of the Irish State. I am confident that work will be completed in time for release 100 years after the census was taken.

"Given the success of the digitised 1901 and 1911 census returns, I’m sure that the 1926 Census will be equally as popular and have a significant global reach once released. The census is a fundamental part of our national heritage and collective knowledge.”

Posted by Claire Santry, Irish Genealogy News

Hermy · 16-11-2022 05:25PM

Grreat news - thanks for posting BowWow.

pinkypinky · 16-11-2022 05:33PM

Yes, saw this on Twitter earlier on. Great news.

Put up some thoughts on it myself: https://t.co/Lrvkf8w3jX

Kalimah · 16-11-2022 05:33PM

I cannot wait for this! Back to stalking my ancestors as my kids tell me😀 Back in the mid 1980s I went into the Public Record Office and browsed the massive books of returns from 1901 I think it was. My grandfather who was alive at the time was thrilled to hear about where his own grandfather lived at the time, and who his neighbours were. I still have the notes I made at the time.

Very luckily some of my dad's ancestors were from Cavan so I have managed to go back as far as the 1760s on that side. Every time I see UK genealogy programs with records from 1891, 1881 etc I could weep!

Mick Tator · 16-11-2022 07:50PM

Not much use to me sadly. Now if they could kick a few quid to upload the early GRO records I'd be over the moon!

pinkypinky · 16-11-2022 08:49PM

Absolutely no negativity allowed in this thread @Mick Tator

I presume that I know where most of my ancestral families will be and what their returns will say (with the exception of names of employers) but it's still going to be interesting and fun.

Mick Tator · 17-11-2022 12:23AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119883075#Comment_119883075

🤤 Sadly Mick has long experience of working with politicos and their minions. Let's postpone judgement until 1st April (1926).

Charles Babbage · 17-11-2022 12:40AM

Bit of a misnomer, unlike the proper censuses of Ireland already released only the census of the Freestate will be going online.

Hermy · 17-11-2022 01:16AM

It’s not a misnomer - nothing of the sort.

The 1926 census is as much a proper census of Ireland as any other taken of this country.

Elwyn · 17-11-2022 03:38AM

What’s going to be released does not include the portion for what is now Northern Ireland. (Sadly it has been lost). Presumably that’s behind the reference to it being a misnomer. But what is being released will still be very helpful for many people.

Hermy · 17-11-2022 08:51AM

What's being released is the 1926 Census of Ireland and the six counties of Northern Ireland have no place in it as they are part of a separate jurisdiction.

I'm well aware of what's being inferred by the veiled reference to misnomers and I think it's beyond the scope of this thread - indeed, this forum - to pursue that line of inquiry.

The Politics and History forums are the places to have that discussion.

Charles Babbage · 17-11-2022 06:02PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119884430#Comment_119884430

It isn't rocket science a Census of Ireland should enumerate all people in Ireland, not just three-quarters of it. I am not debating the whys and wherefores of how this came about, but I am simply pointing out the misleading name for a document that actually requires to know what county an ancestor lives in to know if they should be there or not and so is not comparable to the previous censuses released.

Hermy · 17-11-2022 06:41PM

Which of the 26 counties have not been included in the 1926 census?

pinkypinky · 18-11-2022 05:13PM

Please leave the politics at the door @Charles Babbage

BowWow · 15-12-2022 07:41PM

Tender released for digitisation of 1926 Census.

Details on Irish Genealogy.

Link - https://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2022/12/tenders-requested-for-management-of.html

(Suggestion - change thread title to "Census 1926 - Updates")

Jellybaby_1 · 15-12-2022 08:55PM

Great news! It's coming! And so is Christmas! Can I help? Please?

pinkypinky · 16-12-2022 10:44AM

One month get such a significant tender sorted, when offices will be closed for part of that time. I hope companies were ready and expecting this!

Mick Tator · 16-12-2022 07:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120002484#Comment_120002484

😊 The real worry is the length of time taken for the ‘selection’ decision to be made. I’m confident the ‘key’ companies were expecting this. This project is well known and I’d be very surprised if the leading contenders have not already had meetings on the task/materiel.

I’m not a cynic, but “Ho hum” when it comes to Government tenders. I’m 99% certain that the winning firm has already been earmarked subject to their price not beig hugely in excess of the no.2 applicant. But, a tender of this size (all costing over €140k) has to be advertised at EU level. That means more international competition, more work for Kildare St., so with a tight tender period, the probability is that many will be frozen out and the winner is going to be the one favoured at the outset. FWIW all other EU member states do the same, but usually it is to favour their own.

pinkypinky · 16-12-2022 09:00PM

Given that this is going to be free on the NAI website, do we think that companies like FMP and Ancestry wouldn't bother tendering? There's nothing in it for them.

VirginiaB · 16-12-2022 09:16PM

Will it be released already indexed? US censuses have been released free to all by the government but not indexed and very hard to search. Indexing is what Ancestry and others pay to do and get it on their sites fast to attract more subscribers.

Mick Tator · 16-12-2022 10:54PM

My experience is that companies are either dedicated to government contracts or ignore them entirely for good reason. It will depend on the terms of the tender; if, like the 1901/1911, the Irish State pays for the entire process, access will be free. That fits with earlier political pronouncements. If it is not searchable Ancestry and FMP would see an opportunity to fill a niche, and would try to become involved. They have the technology. As I’ve written elsewhere DNA is ‘drying up’ for the big companies so they might start to get interested in projects like this to improve their income streams. I doubt it in this case.

The relative size of the populations rules out comparison Ireland vs USA

Tender link is here https://irl.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/230620/0/0?returnUrl=ctm/Supplier/PublicTenders&b=ETENDERS_SIMPLE

pinkypinky · 17-12-2022 12:08PM

I expect that it will be free and on a redesigned census.nationalarchives.ie. It won't just be images.

BowWow · 28-01-2025 07:41PM

Comment from Ann Marie Coghlan on the IGP County Dublin Facebook page that this census will go live online on the 18th. April 2026. - She will provide more details when they are to hand.

Jellybaby_1 · 28-01-2025 09:40PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123109866#Comment_123109866

Holy cow! That's great news. Fingers crossed it all goes ahead as expected (or hoped)!

CassieManson · 29-01-2025 10:54AM

Really looking forward to 1926 census - such a big gap from 1911! Does anyone know what data was captured? Was it the same template as the 1911 census?

L1011 · 29-01-2025 10:58AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123111358#Comment_123111358

The example data suggests age was asked for in years and months (though it will still be wildly inaccurate for many people I'd expect); employer as well as occupation and some more specifics about children born in current and previous marriages

1926examples.pdf