1821 Census

[Ghostwheel]

Does anyone know how the 1821 census of Meath survived?

What I mean is, was it arranged mostly alphabetically and survived, more or less, in alphabetic segments, with some surnames being fairly complete.  Or, for instance, was it arranged more purely geographically and survived in geographic segments, with the surnames being more random but some parishes being more complete.  Or is there any estimate on what sort of percentage or parts of of it survived?

Much obliged.

[Elwyn Soutter]

This link says there are records from 19 parishes in Meath which are “mostly incomplete”.

http://timeline.ie/irish-genealogy/irish-census-returns/

Googling the 1821 stats, the population of Meath was 159,183. The surviving bits of the 1821 have 37,391. So that’s about a quarter.

Can’t tell you how it survived. I don’t know. However other surviving extracts have arisen because people were given permission to copy bits, plus the pension extracts will contribute a little. I read some years back that parts of the surviving 1821 Cavan census were found in a Church of Ireland repository by a PhD student doing theological research.  Quite why they were there I don’t know but it sounds as though they were borrowed from the Dublin Public record Office pre 1922,  and just and not returned. Fortunately for us.

[Ghostwheel]

That is very interesting.

I've been experimenting with names between the 1821 census and 1901 census, just to see the frequency.  For instance, I typed in "Thomas Clarke" for both.

1821=>19 hits
1901=> 31 hits

Those numbers seem fairly close in magnitude, but, of course, Ireland and Meath had a significantly larger population back in 1821, when compared with 1901.  Also, just eyeballing it, areas seem to definitely be missing.

One of the things I would do if I could go back in time would be to try to preserve the census, silly as it sounds, though I suppose, we should all be thankful for what genealogical records remain.

[Phildude]

Would anyone know if the 1821 census for Donaghmore Meath  some of which survived is the Navan or Ashbourne Donaghmore .Thanks. http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1821/Meath/

[Sinann]

Lower Navan
This seems to be the first page
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/c19/007246640/007246640_00804.pdf
and I think this is the last
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/c19/007246640/007246640_00855.pdf
all the townlands seem to be in the Navan Donaghmore
https://www.johngrenham.com/c_parish/c_parish_main.php?civilparishid=2846&county=Meath&civilparish=Donaghmore%20(Navan)&CountyMap=

[Phildude]

Thanks Sinan.