Stitch and Bear

A long-running Irish blog with reviews of the best restaurants in Dublin and throughout Ireland. Some wine and cocktails thrown in for good measure!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Irish 1911 Census Online

On one of my recent flights home from Brussels, I fell into conversation with a gentleman from the Office of Public Works. After all, if you've read my previous post, due to the terrible timekeeping of Aer Lingus, there's usually plenty of time for chatting at the airport and on the plane. It turns out that he had been over in Brussels determining the restoration work required on Irish high crosses in Brussels. Who even knew that there were high crosses in Brussels?

We chatted about different things as we flew home. Seeing as how I am Corkwoman, he told me about Michael Collins' grave in Glasnevin, and the graves of the 1916 leaders in Arbour Hill. This man was a mine of information and could answer just about any question I threw at him.

One of our last topic was the digitisation of the Irish 1911 census, courtesy of the National Archives. At the moment only the records for Dublin are available on line. I was disappointed at this, as I had been hoping to search for my family records and see could I match what I knew about my family with what the records held. Other counties are due to be added over the course of the year, if you're as intested as I am.

However, I searched for the tenants of my current address in Dublin, which is in a genteel, somewhat exclusive address. Turns out that a Lieutenant Colonel and his family originally lived in my house, which has long since been turned into apartments. In 1911, our lieutenant, aged 47, was married to a 37 year old woman with what I presume to be three daughters aged 14, 11 and 3. Also listed as residents of the address are two females, aged 21 and 36 who must have been the family servants.

I've spent a part of today imagining this family in the rooms of our flat. What did they wear, how were the rooms decorated, used and so on. Just even knowing the ages, and names of the people who used to live in our house makes it so much more vivid.
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1 comment

Anonymous said...

Grrr, any question eh? Ask him can he answer this one....'SMACK!' that's what I want to know. And all of this going on while I was dreaming of noodles in the bag only feet away, grrr. Next time I'll be on guard, smacking anyone who gets too close...GRRRR.

High crosses and Michael Collins eh? Does he know anything about anyone who's alive? He'll be getting his wish in joining them sooner than he thought...SMACK.

Grrr, Stitchy left the spare key in the usual spot, silly Stitch. Sometimes it doesn't fly too straight but I manage. Now to work out the laser beams and see if I can find the office of public ka-boom.

Grrr, by the way I’m ‘intested’ in only one thing, haha! (2 things really…)

Come back soon, I miss thumpy bed times.

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