The National Archives of Ireland (NAI) is expecting huge interest when the 1926 census records are released on Saturday.
These are the first census records for the independent Irish State, so, unlike the 1901 and 1911 censuses, Northern Ireland is not included.
The NAI has already successfully placed the 1901 and 1911 censuses online and made them free to view, and the 1926 census will follow much the same template.
There are 13 categories in the 1926 records. These include: names and addresses; relationship to the head of household; age; sex ; marital status; birthplace; proficiency in the Irish language; occupation; and place of employment.
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There is a separate category for married women, who had to state the number of years they had been married and the number of their children born alive.
There is a similar category for married men, but also for widows and widowers, who were asked to state the number of children and stepchildren they had.
The census records are broken down by district electoral divisions that roughly correspond to today’s local electoral areas.
The NAI is recommending members of the public who wish to view the census gather all the information they have about their ancestors before searching, such as their names, where they lived and their ages in 1926.
Given there may be different spellings of names – Boyle instead of O’Boyle or Maloney instead of Moloney, for instance – users are advised to also check by county or townland.
In rare cases the person’s name may be redacted because individuals or their families decided to opt out, though this is rare.
The public can search by name, address, age and employment.
The 1901 and 1911 census were released digitally between 2007 and 2010 and attracted millions of page views from around the world.
At the time they were not subject to the 100-years rule that covers all the post-independence censuses. The digitisation of the 1901 and 1911 censuses came from black and white microfilm that the Mormons created as part of their Family Search database.
The Mormons have long put a big emphasis on genealogy and have the largest database of deceased people in the world.
This time the digital records are being created from the actual hard copies that have been in the National Archives for the last century.
This should ensure better clarity of imagery than in previous censuses and make it easier for people to find their ancestors.
