History of the 1926 census
On the 18th April 1926 a census was taken in both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. This was the first census there since the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, where the island of Ireland was split into two, for no census was taken in 1921 due to the Irish War of Independence. However, whilst the 1926 census was taken across Ireland, unfortunately the returns for Northern Ireland have not survived. Meanwhile, the returns for the Irish Free State were released exactly 100 years after it was taken - on 18th April 1926.
How to access
The 1926 census returns have been made freely available by the National Archives of Ireland. Searches can be made by name, or by street or townland address, and the process is straightforward. Useful, practical guidance is provided to help searches which may have initially been unsuccessful.
What information is included in the return?
An example of the 1926 census is shown below. Information provided includes names of each household member, their relationship to the head of the house, age, sex and birthplace, what language is spoken, religion, occupation and place of employment. The penultimate columns allow married women to state the number of years they have been married for, together with the number of living children they have. The final column asks for the number of children each married man, widower or widow had under the age of 16 'whether residing as members of this household or elsewhere.'
This work includes content from records of the 1926 Census of Ireland, made available by the National Archives of Ireland under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Please see further: https://nationalarchives.ie/search-the-1926-census-2/permission-to-reuse-census-1926/
Taking it further
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