Читать книгу Collins Tracing Your Irish Family History - Ryan Tubridy, Anthony Adolph - Страница 44

British censuses have been taken from 1801, though only a handful before 1841, as detailed in my Collins Tracing your Family History, are any use to genealogists. The 1841 census lists everyone in each household, with occupations and ages rounded down to the nearest five years (someone aged 29 would be listed as 25). Those born in Ireland are marked ‘I’, those from Scotland ‘S’, whilst those born in England and Wales answered ‘Y[es]’ or ‘N[o]’ to the question ‘were you born in this county?’. From 1851, precise ages, relationships to the head of household and places of birth are stated. Those within mainland Britain are usually accurate down to parish level, but the Irish-born are usually just recorded as ‘Ireland’. The censuses from 1881 are more likely to give an Irish county or even parish: it’s worth seeking Irish immigrants in all possible censuses.

Unfortunately, many Irish migrants to mainland Britain viewed census takers with great suspicion, so claimed to have been born wherever they were living: the antidote is to seek them in several censuses, hoping to find the truth. The 1911 census will be released in 2012, that for 1921 in 2022 and so on according to the 100-year secrecy rule.

Censuses are at the Family Records Centre (soon to be moved to TNA), and are fully indexed and available online at www.genesreunited. com and www.ancestry.com, with transcripts of the 1881 census at www.familysearch.org.