RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Topic started by: Leon47 on Sunday 03 August 25 17:11 BST (UK)
-
I have been reading all about Census's and I'm a bit confused.
I've read that "The next Irish census to be released will be the 1926 Irish census which will be released online, free to view in April 2026." but does this include records for Northern Ireland?
If not, when will the next (post 1911) census records covering Northern Ireland be released?
BTW I know that the 1921 census was never taken and the next one was 1926 but the Northern Irish part of that one no longer exists.
So just to repeat, what is the next available Census covering Northern Ireland, taken after 1911 and when will that be available to view?
Thanks.
-
The short answer is no, the 1926 census release next year will not cover the north of Ireland.
1926 census was destroyed (sound familiar?).
Next census was 1951.
-
Thank you.
1951? So no holding of breath while waiting to see that one.
-
The census for 1926 exists for the Republic of Ireland only, as the paperwork from the 1926 Census of Northern Ireland was destroyed during WW2.
-
Thank you.
1951? So no holding of breath while waiting to see that one.
Yes, 1951. No census in 1931 or 41.
-
There was a census in Northern Ireland in 1937 but it won’t be available till 2037.
https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/2011-and-earlier-censuses/1937-census
There is the 1939 Register for Northern Ireland which is held by PRONI. It is organised differently to the equivalent register in England & Wales. It is not on-line but you can access it now through an FOI request to PRONI. However you can’t search by name. You need to know the person’s address or townland. If they find the entry what you get will be redacted to exclude medical information and any other families records on the same page.
https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/1939-national-register.html
-
There was a census in Northern Ireland in 1937 but it won’t be available till 2037.
Interesting. Not listed on Wiki page for six county demographics - has a table that lists population changes by census year. Someone should add this.
-
I somehow knew that this would get complicated but I asked for it!
Has anyone actually written all of this down in one exhaustive article? I seem to be able to find only snippets of the full story here and there and some of the information just seems to generate more questions.
Requesting the 1939 Register Northern Irish records sounds painfully long winded. Does anyone actually use that method? Do you pay for it?
Thanks all.
-
I somehow knew that this would get complicated but I asked for it!
Has anyone actually written all of this down in one exhaustive article? I seem to be able to find only snippets of the full story here and there and some of the information just seems to generate more questions.
Requesting the 1939 Register Northern Irish records sounds painfully long winded. Does anyone actually use that method? Do you pay for it?
Thanks all.
Elwyn Souter gave you two relevant links in reply 5. I know this as I clicked on both as I'm always interested in learning more.
The second link has a list of census taken and availability plus info on arrangements for currently limited access to the 1939 register
Boo
-
Requesting the 1939 Register Northern Irish records sounds painfully long winded. Does anyone actually use that method? Do you pay for it?
Thanks all.
Yes, plenty of people have used it. It’s free and quite quick.
The reason it’s not more readily accessible is because the information is all mixed up. On the English Register the personal information is on the left hand page and medical on the right, so it was easy to ignore the medical information (which has not been released to the public) and just scan the left hand pages. In the version used in NI the medical and personal information is all on the one page. So an inky clerk has to go through and blank out the medical stuff before it can be released. Putting it on-line would involved a huge amount of work, and is not viable. So your only option is to write to PRONI if you want the information on the Register.
-
Thanks to all who replied and to Elwyn for those links. I must confess to not clicking the one mentioning the 1939 Register because I already knew about that and didn't think it would give general Census info. which it does. I should have checked.
Thanks for clarifying things folks. I'm going to try a PRONI search, within the 1939 Register and see what happens.
-
I'm going to try a PRONI search, within the 1939 Register and see what happens.
The best of luck, and come back and let us know how you got on. :D
-
Will do.
-
https://historyhubulster.co.uk/census-1937/ is another link with the same 1926 & 1937 pdf summary reports as on NISRA. The introduction explains what was omitted in more limited census to bridge the gap between the 1926 and the 1941 (which got cancelled) - it omitted questions related to occupation and industry.
See also the summary https://nisra.gov.uk/statistics/2011-and-earlier-censuses/history-census which has a further link to a pdf Chapter 2 – A Brief History of the Census in Ireland/Northern Ireland from the Registrar General Northern Ireland Annual Report 2011
Equivalent for the Republic https://cso.ie/en/census/censusthroughhistory/
The non-existant 1926 census householder forms for the 6 counties of N.I. were of course different from that we will get to see for the then 'Irish Free State'.
1939 Register that Elwyn posted previously and you have seen
https://irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/1939-national-register.html with the timeline of 20th Century census taken in N.I to 1951 and explaining the 1939 format.
The proceedure for requests is essentially unchanged since 2010 https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-on-northern-irish-1939-national.html
https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2010/03/1939-northern-irish-foi-request.html
On the English Register the personal information is on the left hand page and medical on the right,
and those are summary books compiled from householder forms which were then destroyed (in the same way the 1841-1901 census for England and Wales are summary books and only the 1911 & 1921 actual original forms filled in by the householder themselves).
https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/9906/what-happened-to-the-original-household-schedules-used-to-produce-the-1939-regis
An example of the N.I. register can be seen on the toolkit link - it is a card headed 'Transcript of Application for Ration Books' for each house/one family, not multiple households in a street - which would again make it much more labourious for a commercial company to digitise and name index. Perhaps they will take it on after 1939 when everyone will be over 100 and nothing has to be redacted. I'm not sure of the extent/duration of updates to the N.I cards with surname changes after marriage/s as done in England. And the unseen right page in England must have NHS death annotation codes up to 1991 hence people known to have died 1970 aged 40 are visible (section 9.2 of https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/1939-register/ ). That proceedure evidently stopped earlier in N.I. have seen one with the name scored out annotated 1950 and Cancelled but the National Registration Act was still in force & everyone had to carry an ID card and keep the authorities informed of address changes until 21 Feb 1952. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Registration_Act_1939 and https://familyhistory.co.uk/1939-register/
There are some interesting replies to the genealogy-stackexchange question, that I had not read before.
-
Thanks for that. I'll have a read tomorrow.
-
I'm going to try a PRONI search, within the 1939 Register and see what happens.
I've never found it in the eCat. There there is no surname index, you essentially need to provide the street or Townland of residence, then they manually find the household.
Back in 2010 "the hundreds of volumes did not have an index, a manual search had to be conducted on a page by page basis for the information" I recall a blog or news saying PRONI had created a street index for Belfast themselves to aid locating the correct volume/box
A list of the N.I 3 letter prefix codes can be found on https://whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_request_for_1939_nat