Can't find them? We'll look for free.
Tell us everything you know, however loose, and a person will search the 1901, 1911 and 1926 census for your family.
What to tell us
Write it however it comes to you. Anything helps: names and other spellings, rough ages or birth years, a county, parish or nearest town, religion, jobs, who they lived with, who emigrated and when, and the family stories. Which census you think they're in (1901, 1911 or 1926) and any birth dates narrow things down a lot. We can't take photos or documents, so please type out what they say.
A person reads every one and replies on your own private page, usually within a few working days, and we email you when we do. The records are patchy and spellings wander, so we can't promise to find them, but we'll tell you what we found and where we looked. There's no charge and nothing to buy.
Questions the National Archives can't answer
The National Archives' census search finds one person at a time, by name and place. If you don't know the place, or the name was spelt three different ways, it's hard to get anywhere. We hold every household as a whole family, so we can look for people by who they lived with:
- Mary Byrne, born around 1880 in Wicklow, had a sister Kate and a son Patrick.
- My great-grandfather was a Catholic farmer called John Doherty, somewhere near Buncrana. His wife might have been Bridget.
- Two brothers, Michael and James Walsh, left Mayo for Boston around 1912. Their father was a blacksmith.