| The
1851 Dublin City Census
Compiled and Edited by Seán
Magee
•Elizabeth
Kelly Kerstens , GC Extra, 8 November 200
Review of The 1851 Dublin City Census
Eneclann Eneclann, Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland has released its
third CD in its Irish Records Index series. This title, The
1851 Dublin City Census-Chart's Index of Heads of Households,
could be extremely useful to those researching Dublin ancestors
in the mid-nineteenth century.
As those who have done any Irish research are too painfully
aware, only fragments of 19th century Irish censuses survive-both
due to accidental and intentional destruction.
The alternative is generally to search for ancestors in Griffith's
Primary Valuation and the Tithe Applotment Books. However,
these primary sources are of little use to researchers searching
in the larger cities of Ireland because they don't document
those living in tenements.
According to the introductory material for this CD, this
index was prepared by Dr. D. A. Chart from the 1851 Census
with the intent of establishing proof of age for the old age
pensions. The entries were transcribed from hand-written ledgers
into a database by Seán Magee. The search engine allows
for standard searches, Soundex searches, and an expert search.
The first two searches allow for searching a surname and other
variables, such as given name, street, or parish. The Soundex
search adds extra flexibility to the search engine to account
for the wide variation in name spellings that would have been
recorded in the 1851 Census. For names with prefixes, such
as O' or Mc, the CD instructions also recommend that searches
be conducted with and without the prefixes as the names were
intentionally left as found in the original source.
Since I'm always trying to find more Presleys in Ireland,
I tried the Soundex search for that surname. I received two
hits for two women named "Parsley" and most of the
rest of the hits were for "Purcells," which is a
name I run across frequently when I do Soundex searches on
the name Presley. The data presented for each person is surname,
forename, notes, street number, street, civil parish, and
whether the person lived on the north or south side of the
River Liffey within the central part of Dublin.
The expert search allows a keyword search of the entire database.
This added dimension allows you to find information contained
within the database that is not searchable any other way.
For instance, I typed the word "Belfast" in the
expert search form and was presented with five people who
were listed in the 1851 Census for Dublin but had "removed"
to Belfast. The information about their removal is contained
in the "Forename & Notes" field. This field
doesn't always have extra details, but when it does, the information
might help solve a mystery for a descendant. Some entries
might indicate that the person has moved to another address,
or that he or she is away from home that night, or even that
the person has emigrated.
The CD also comes with copies of the original 1847 ordinance
survey maps of Dublin. You access the maps separately from
outside the census index program. When you first install the
census program, you also install a program called GrafixView.
When you open the map portion of the program, you are presented
with a map of the city broken into sections. Each of the sections
is a separate, large graphic that you select and download
from the CD. You are warned that the download may take a while
because of the size of the graphic. The image will appear
on your screen in a browser. If you left click on the image,
you can zoom in to look closer at the buildings. If you right
click, you can zoom out. The images, once you've zoomed in,
are fabulous to look at. The detail is very readable and you
might be able to pinpoint where on the map an ancestor was
living. I was unable to print the map, apparently because
of its size. I also couldn't find a way to print a portion
of the map.
This CD should be a welcome addition to Irish researchers
with Dublin ancestors. Eneclann has more CDs planned, and
I'm hopeful that they can find similar data for Belfast to
further my Presley research.
The system requirements for this CD are simply Windows 95
and above. I used the software successfully on my Windows
XP operating system. You also need to have TCP/IP network
protocol and dial-up networking operational on your computer
as this is required by the software that runs the census portion
of the CD.
Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS, CGL, is the managing
editor of Genealogical Computing, editor of the Board for
Certification of Genealogists' newsletter OnBoard, the creator
of Clooz-the electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records,
co-creator of the new family health history program GeneWeaver,
and a frequent contributor to Ancestry. She can be reached
via e-mail at gceditor@ancestry.com
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