Find My Past Ireland - Search with the experts

Useful links for Census and substitutes

Our Irish Census and substitutes contain some excellent regional census records (dating back to 1749), as well as electoral registers.

Also, don't forget that our Land & estates records are an excellent substitute for censuses.

Find out more about some of the key records included in this section:

• Reports from Committees, Fictitious Votes (Ireland), Select Committee on Fictitious Votes, 1837-1838
• The Census of Elphin 1749
• The Dublin City Census 1901: Rotunda Ward
• The Dublin City Census 1851

About these records

Researching your Irish family history has been made difficult primarily due to the well documented destruction of all census returns prior to the 1901 census, during the Irish civil war (1922) or by government order and administrative oversight in earlier years. To fill in these gaps, we have a number of excellent census substitutes available to search. In this section you'll find census fragments dating from 1749 to 1901, as well as 19th century electoral rolls.

Other sections of findmypast Ireland also contain many excellent substitutes for censuses. Perhaps the most useful is Griffith’s Valuation (1847-1864), which lists approximately 80 per cent of householders in Ireland and includes the names of over 1.4 million individuals. Find it in our Land & estates section, along with our unique Landed Estates Court records. Other useful census substitutes available are Tithe Defaulters (1831) and the William Smith O’Brien Petition (1848-9) in our Military & rebellion section.

Finally, the 1901 and 1911 censuses of Ireland can be viewed online for free at the National Archives of Ireland’s website.