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About Dublin City Census 1851 - Heads of Household Index
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Background The destruction of the 19th Irish Census returns is probably the greatest loss that genealogy in Ireland has suffered. Irish genealogists have tried to fill this gap using extant documentary sources from the 19th Century, as 'census substitutes'. The most commonly used substitutes - the Tithe Applotment Books (compiled 1823-1838), and Griffith's Primary Valuation (compiled 1848-1864; hosts the most complete set of the Primary Valuation publications which exists), and Thom's Directories (compiled after 1845), are of little or no use to researchers tracing ancestors in Dublin City. All these surveys are based on land or house holding, and do not attempt to document actual residence, in particular they do not reflect the practice of 'tenement dwelling' in Dublin city, common in the mid 19th Century, whereby two or more families occupied apartments in a house. One important census substitute has survived for the capital city however, and that is an index of the heads of households in Dublin City from the 1851 Census of Ireland as compiled by Dr D.A. Chart. Chart's Index Chart's index, preserved in the National Archives (CEN 1851/18/1-2) consists of two hand written volumes, one for Dublin City South and one for Dublin City North. The index is compiled from family names taken from the census form B. Chart's names index is organised by street names within each civil parish and so is not easy to use unless the researcher already has an address. The present index has been compiled with a view to making the Chart's original index more widely available and easier to use. Also the condition of the two volumes held in the National Archives is quite poor after 85 years: the volumes are hardbound, and the spine of the volume of entries for Dublin South is broken with some frayed loose pages. So this index should help prevent any further deterioration of the original manuscript. The origin of the index confers a semi-official status. It is mentioned in 47 PRO DK Report, 1915, which states that in the absence of adequate records of births, "the census returns of 1851 have been useful in furnishing proof of age". This proof was particularly necessary to substantiate applications for the old age pension. Hence, "a catalogue of families residing in Dublin on the night the census was taken has now been compiled from the census returns. and will be used henceforth to check the statements of applicants and to locate families living in Dublin of whose address there is no certain knowledge. The catalogue has been prepared by D.A. Chart; it will save the Dublin census returns from much unnecessary wear and will be extremely helpful to genealogists, claimants of OAP's, etc."Although a census substitute, no matter what its provenance, can never replace the original census, Chart’s Index, is more than simply a list of heads of households, containing as it does, ancillary information. It is therefore an important and unique source for historians and genealogists. The Index Records All index entries contain:
Eliza; Byrne; 2; Furlong's Court, Back Lane; St. Audeon's; South There are some idiosyncrasies in the way last names are spelled and first names abbreviated. Details are provided in the Help on Searching - Dublin city Census 1851 which we recommend you read before searching. Geographical Coverage This index covers central Dublin - the inner city area between the canals, and consists of approximately 59,000 names and addresses of heads of households, from 21 civil parishes, 15 on the south side of the Liffey (St. Audeon, St. Andrew, St. Anne, St. Bridget, St. Catherine, St. James, St. John, St. Luke, St. Mark, St. Michael, St. Nicholas Within, St. Nicholas Without, St. Patrick's Deanery, St. Peter, and St. Werburgh) with a total of 33,565 entries or 56.9% of the city's population, and 6 parishes on the north side (St. George, St. Mary, St. Michan, St. Paul, St. Thomas, and Grange Gorman) with a total of 25,429 entries or 43.1% of the population of Dublin city. To assist with locating the addresses in Chart's index, we have made a full set of large plans of Dublin City available online. These plans were made in 1847, shortly before the census, so that all the locations referred to in the index should be present. You may find it difficult to read some text (eg house numbers) on the Dublin City plans. The file sizes of the online plans had to be reduced so that the download time would not be too excessive; that entailed reducing the quality a little. The original scanned images are of significantly better quality than those available online, and are available on the 1851 Dublin City Census CD. Click here to go to the Irish Origins Store Features of the census The 1851 census was carried out by the police acting as enumerators on 30th March 1851. A particular feature of the census was that family members absent from the household on census night were also included; in 91 households the head of household was 'absent' or 'away', including Thomas Shaw, who was absent from a canal boat at Broadstone (Royal Canal) Harbour. Another 30 heads of households are recorded as 'gone away', though the precise meaning of this term varied; it was used to encompass individuals such as Mary Ann Plant of 31 Mecklenburg St. Lower, who had 'gone to America'; Michael Byrne, formerly of 84 Church St. who had 'gone to [the] poorhouse'; and Michael Fields of 8 Rogerson's Quay who had 'gone to sea'. In 122 cases the head of household had 'removed', an ambiguous term which encompassed: (a) changes of address within the city, as in the case of Isaac Usher formerly of 18 North Earl St., who 'removed to Kingstown'; (b) emigration, including William Branagan of 7 Aldborough Place and Thomas Fitzgerald of 2 Parkgate St., both of whom 'removed to England'; and even (c) admittance to hospital - a Bridget Rafferty formerly of Brown St. North, was recorded as having been 'removed to [the] asylum'. This level of detail - though relatively rare throughout Chart's Index - is particularly useful for the genealogist trying to track approximate dates and routes of migration. Where the male head of household was absent, Chart recorded the wife or female head of household in his index. This information was provided from 66 households (approximately 27% of all absentees noted in the 1851 census) by the wives or other female relatives. By also recording the women present on the night of the census, as well as the absent male head of household, Chart may have allowed for the possibility that some of these women may in fact have lived independently from their men-folk, for whatever reason. However these numbers are negligible, and do not substantially alter the statistics. In a small number of cases Chart distinguished heads of household with the same name, by noting on their occupation, or their spouse's name. The index is not confined to householders, but includes persons working in various institutions on census night. These include: the Royal, Richmond and Arbour Hill Barracks; the North and South Dublin Union Workhouses; Trinity College Dublin; the Royal Dublin Society; the Rotunda, Meath and Richmond Hospitals; the Dublin House of Industry; the Richmond Bridewell, and Grangegorman Prisons; the Bank of Ireland; Jury's Hotel, etc. Comparing Chart's Index and Thom's Directory A comparison of Chart's Index with the 1851 edition of Thom's Directory, reveals the importance of the Index to the Dublin genealogist. Chart's Index covers all heads of household resident in the city on the night of 30th March, whereas Thom's lists only the ratepayers and does not include those who lived in tenements or cottages. The Index is therefore much wider in its scope than any other extant source for Dublin city. This is clearly illustrated in Table 1, which, for a representative group of 25 streets, compares the number of householders listed in Chart against those listed in Thom's: Chart's Index names 3,335 householders in residence, while Thom's names only 396. Click here to view Table 1 In some instances the two sources between them name not only the householder, but also a spouse or other family member, so that the two sources are complementary. (If you are using both sources, note that there are some discrepancies in house numbers between the two.) An Insight into Social Conditions Chart's Index provides a unique insight into the social conditions in Dublin City in the mid-19th century, especially when used alongside the official census statistics for 1841 and 1851, published in the Parliamentary Papers. Interesting and significant is the number of women recorded as head of household: 15,500 households, 26.3% of the total in Dublin in 1851, recorded a female head of household (this figure includes the small number of cases where the husband was recorded as absent, see above). This would appear to be a strong indication of the relative economic freedoms which Irish women enjoyed in an urban setting in the mid-19th Century. In the absence of the complete 1851 census, long since destroyed, it is unfortunately impossible to determine what percentage of these women may have worked for a living, or to develop a detailed study from this source of the types of employment available to women in mid-19th Century Ireland. Table 2 lists the population and the number of houses from the official 1841 and 1851 census returns for the City of Dublin. The data shows, not surprisingly, an increase in the population of the city as compared to the country-wide decline following the famine. Dublin City was not reliant on the potato crop, and saw large-scale inward migration from the countryside as a consequence of the famine. In 1851, Dublin City's recorded population of 258,361 persons living in 22,276 houses, indicates an average of 11.6 persons per house (NB not households). Click here to view Table 2 Table 3 shows the number of households for each parish (from Chart's data), with the population figures and the number of houses, the average number of persons per household and the average number of households per house per parish. While Chart's figures cannot be taken as totally accurate because of duplication due to surname spelling variations, his figures are probably still reliable indicators. City-wide there were on average 4.19 persons per household and 2.66 households per house, but with much variation in the number of households per house between the parishes, ranging from 1.69 households per house in St. George's parish (a suburban area), to 4.43 in St. Michan's, where the main city tenements were located. Click here to view Table 3 Table 4 shows the 20 most densely populated streets in Dublin City in the mid-19th Century: Church St. in the north-side parish of St. Michan's, and Townsend St. in the south-side parish of St. Mark's were the most populous, containing the largest number of tenements in the city. Click here to view Table 4 Table 5 lists the 20 most common surnames, Byrne or O'Byrne by far outnumbering all others. Table 6 indicates the 20 most common first names. Not surprisingly, John was the most popular man's name, and Mary the most popular woman's. In 156 households the head of household was named "John Byrne"; in 107 households the head was "John Kelly"; and in 101 households "Mary Byrne" was the head. Surprisingly, the Gaelic forms of names, for example Seán for John, are not recorded in the index, indicating a strong tendency to Anglicise names. Despite this, the traditional use of the prefixes, M[a]c and O', was widely retained: 3,146 heads of household used the prefix M[a]c, and 1,265 used the traditional O' - O'Byrne, O'Kelly, etc. Click here to view Table 5 Click here to view Table 6 Acknowledgements David Craig, Director of the National Archives, for permission to publish Chart's Index. Rob Goodbody, John Martin, Tony Malloy, Liam Nolan, and all the staff at the Planning Department, Dublin Corporation, for permission to use the scanned images of the 1847 OS Town Plans. Paul Ferguson, Map Librarian, Trinity College Richard Kirwan, Director of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland Ian Cantwell, for helping with the introduction to the maps This introduction is an edited version of that prepared by Seán Magee, the transcriber of Chart's original index, for the CD version of this index, published by Eneclann Ltd. © 2001-2004 Seán Magee, Eneclann Ltd and OMS Services Ltd. |
