About Census Connections
According to the old African proverb it takes a village to raise a child and that proverb applied to the generations who came before us; our ancestors did not live in isolation, they lived amongst their own family and friends which we tend to ignore when doing our own family history research. What this website aims to do is to build a picture of the community in which our ancestors lived. Who were our great-grandparents neighbours, what was the street that they lived in like, what kind of house did they live in?
Data & Process
On this website we have taken the data from the Irish census returns of 1901 and 1911, which can be accessed online at www.census.nationalarchives.ie, and have collated this data for a small number of areas to begin with; we have linked individuals in each census year and attempted to find their corresponding return in the other year. This way we can track where people have moved to or if they have stayed, how their family may have grown or where someone moved for work etc.
It must be noted that this linking of people over these two census years may be incorrect so if you notice an error or if you know of someone that we have not linked together please contact us to let us know and we will rectify.
A Labour of Love
On a personal note it has been fascinating working on this project, looking at information for people that are not part of my own family history. It has been an eye-opening experience to see the range of employment and places of birth amongst the people who my own ancestors lived amongst and socialised with. There are many interesting life-stories that I have come across as a result on this research that will be highlighted on the site and I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I have.
Please feel free to contact me with any information or any comments that you may have. We are currently working on other areas and when complete will update the database. All census data has been reproduced here with kind permission from the National Archives. And finally……….enjoy!