The popular television show on BBC and RTÉ, Who Do You Think You Are?, shows that there’s great interest in finding out more about our ancestors. However, it can all look terribly difficult.

Now, with the digitisation of the Census of Ireland 1911 by the National Archives, it’s never been easier. The 1911 Census is available free at www.census.nationalarchives.ie and brings people with Irish ancestry one step closer to finding out more about who they are.

According to Catriona Crowe, head of special projects at the National Archives, there is even more in store. The first four counties of the Census of Ireland 1901 (Dublin, Antrim, Down and Kerry), will be available online before the end of the year, with the rest becoming available between January and June 2010.

Surviving records
Why the big deal about 1901 and 1911? Well, explains Crowe, the 1901 and 1911 are the only full censuses that survive for the British Administration in Ireland from when censuses began in 1821.

“The ones from 1821 to 1851 were destroyed in the Four Courts in 1922 during the Civil War. The ones from 1861 to 1891 were destroyed by bureaucratic order, we think by mistake, but nonetheless they were destroyed,” she says.

As so much of our archival cultural heritage has been destroyed, Crowe feels it is important that is the remaining records are available for free. “The Department of Art, Sport and Tourism has paid in full for this and it deserves to get a lot of credit for this as it is a wonderful initiative in terms of providing free information to the citizens of Ireland and the Irish Diaspora.”

Where to start
Most people who are looking at the census site are trying to trace their ancestors, says Crowe. She says you should start your search at www.census.nationalarchives.ie. “On the home page, you’re directed immediately to search the records and that brings you to the search page. You put in the forename, the surname, you can put in an approximate age (which will search before and after by five years), and their sex, whether they’re male or female.” County, townland or street are other options.

Crowe gives the example of somebody searching for an ancestor called John Murphy. “If you tap that in say for Dublin city and county, without any qualifications, you’ll find that there’s 453 John Murphys in Dublin city and county. You’ll want to narrow it down as much as you can by age and so on. But even if you can’t, because the site is free, you can click on each of those John Murphys and it will bring you to a household page, which will tell you the other members of the household at that time with their ages and their gender.” The names of siblings, parents, spouses or children can help to establish whether a person has found the John Murphy they are looking for.

Lastly, says Crowe, you can click – just below where that information is – on the Household Return (Form A); that will give you the actual PDF image of the census form filled out on census night in 1911 by your ancestor. “That gives you other things like religion, occupation, literacy status, marital status and so on that will give you even more information about them.”

From November 2009, she adds, it will be possible to search by all the other fields – religion, occupation, Irish-language proficiency etc, making it the most comprehensive free census website in the world.

Checking out your street
As it’s possible to browse the 1911 census by each county, electoral division, townland or street, there’s plenty of interesting information for people that don’t have Irish ancestry or those interested in their neighbourhoods.

Says Crowe: “If you’re living on a street that was there before 1911, you can go back and go right through the street and see who was living in what house, how many rooms they occupied, what their occupations were, whether there were more Catholics or Protestants on this street, or people of other religious persuasion.”

As well as the census records, there are a number of good essays and photos available on the site by clicking on ‘Ireland in 1911’.