Petitioning to Open the 1926 Irish Census

The following announcement was written by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO). It is an umbrella-based lobby group for the various national and international organizations sharing an interest in Irish genealogical research:

CIGO IS PETITIONING THE GOVERNMENT TO OPEN THE 1926 IRISH CENSUS

CIGO has long campaigned for the opening of post-1922 Irish census records after only seventy-five years rather than the current tariff of 100 years. In particular we believe that at the very least the 1926 census should be opened because many of the people enumerated were born before Irish civil registration began in 1864; that as the data recorded is so brief no breach of confidentiality would arise; and that as over 82 years have passed since the 1926 census was compiled virtually every adult then living is now deceased.

Public access to the 1901 and 1911 Irish census was established as early as 1961 by the late Charles Haughey TD. The returns had been temporarily stored in the Public Record Office (PRO) in the mid-1930s, where they subsequently languished. They were officially ‘transferred’ to the PRO under section 13 of the Public Records (Ireland) Act 1867 in May 1961. It is important to remember that this decision was made only fifty years after the 1911 census had been compiled. The received history is that it was done to help mitigate the loss of Ireland’s 19th century census records. Those for the 1821, 1831, 1841 & 1851 censuses were destroyed in the fire that consumed the Public Record Office in June 1922, at the height of the civil war. The returns for the 1861, 1871, 1881 & 1891 censuses were routinely destroyed through a bureaucratic muddle that saw civil servants in London advising their counterparts in Dublin that original census household schedules should be destroyed. Unfortunately, this advice was given without having first established that while in Great Britain the data in these schedules had been copied into census enumerator’s books for future preservation, no such policy was followed in Ireland.

There was to have been a census undertaken in Ireland in 1921, but that plan was abandoned because of the civil war. The first census to be undertaken in the new Irish Free State was legislated for in the Statistics Act 1926, and the enumeration was conducted in the same year. The 1926 Act did not provide for any eventual release of the household returns. However, this was remedied with the passing of the Statistics Act 1993 which did establish access, but only after one hundred years.

The US policy is far more liberal, where census records are released after seventy-one years. This approach appears to work well and is generally accepted by US citizens. All surviving US censuses (with names indexes) up to 1930 are available on the Internet.

The Genealogical Society of Ireland’s (GSI) Genealogy and Heraldry Bill, (which did not become law) allowed for the opening of the 1926 after seventy-five years. GSI has now announced that a short Bill dealing specifically with the release of the 1926 census is soon to be published by an Opposition Senator and CIGO hopes that the Government will consider seriously the Bill’s merit. In the meantime, readers of EOGN can read more about CIGO’s 1926 census policy at: http://www.cigo.ie/campaigns_1926.html and can support the ‘1926 Census’ campaign by signing CIGO’s on-line petition which can be found at: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/1926C.

Comments

[Frances Eagleson]

Both my husband and Ihave Irish ancestors and believe the 1926 census should be released. We live in Canada and don't have access to any history centres in Ireland but want to do our family history and possibly find some living relatives in Ireland.
Please consider this action.

Frances & Gord Eagleson

[Alan McFadden]

Please consider early release of the data for genealogical use!

[Celia L. Ewald]

Please consider releasing the 1926 information. It is important to those researching their ancestry. Thank you.

[monica]

The release of the Census is very important to those who want to know more about their families. Especially when ones lives in another country.

[Genealogical Society of Ireland]

A Chairde,

The Genealogical Society of Ireland is pleased to announce that Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú has agreed to sponsor the Society's Draft Bill - Statistics (Heritage Amendment) Bill, 2008 which will be published in the autumn. The purpose of the Draft Bill is to amend Section 35 of the Statistics Act, 1993 to, in effect, remove the 1926 census from the scope of the 1993 Act and have it released to the public.

For clarification, only the production of amending legislation can facilitate the release of the 1926 census returns as there are NO powers whatsoever vested in An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) by virtue of Section 33 (3) of the 1993 Act which would permit him to open the census. (see Irish Statute Book on www.gov.ie )

Once the Bill has been published and put on the Order Paper for Seanad Éireann (Irish Senate) then it will be up to all with an interest in Irish genealogy to lobby the Ministers, Teachtaí Dála (MPs) and Senators on the Bill.

Kindest regards

Michael Merrigan
General Secretary
Genealogical Society of Ireland
www.familyhistory.ie

[Candi McCarthy Zizek]

I have most of my family from Ireland and am working hard to get my people home to their Townlands. Please release the 1926 census so I can do this work in my lifetime!

Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

Candi McCarthy Zizek

[Joanne Quinlan Kellar]

This would be so wonderful if they could release the 1926 census!!! It would greatly help my Irish research, which is so difficult with the lack of records. I would be most grateful if this could come to pass. Thank you so much Dick for telling us all about this and giving us the site for the petition! Keep us informed about the lobbying effort, as mentioned by Michael Merrigan.

[SANDRA STANLEY]

It would be of the greatest value for the 1926 Census to be released. We Australians have great difficulty in finding out about our Irish ancestors, particularly so prior to 1864.

[SANDRA STANLEY]

It would be of the greatest value for the 1926 Census to be released. We Australians have great difficulty in finding out about our Irish ancestors, particularly so prior to 1864.

[Brian Chipp-Smith]

Please release the 1926 census as I would like to further study my family from Ireland before I am too old to do so. I live in Canada now but most of me family came from Ireland.

THANK YOU

[Mick Regan]

Slightly off-topic (i.e not 1926) but just to say that the National Archive of Ireland are making good progress putting the 1911 census records online.

Antrim, Cork, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, King’s County(Offaly) and Wexford are complete, and they hope to include the rest of Ireland over the next few months.

I tried it out myself yesterday and found my family records from Cork.

You can find them at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

Hope helpful,

all the best,

Mick