Census of 1831 - Information

The only surviving material relating to the 1831 Census of Ireland is volumes of "retrospectively amended records" (Sherry Irvine) relating to County Londonderry. These volumes were created in 1834, when enumerators were requested to summarise information about religious affiliation.

Information in the 1834 volumes      How to research the 1834 volumes

For each townland in each parish (or part-parish) within County Londonderry, the 1834 volumes analyse the gender and religion of household members.

Each page-opening is printed as a form, divided into columns:

  1. Name of Owner or Occupier (in a very few cases enumerators have listed joint heads)
  2. Name of Townland or Street
  3. Number of House (sequential in each townland/street)
  4. Number of Family (?designed to be sequential in each house)
  5. Male family-members (including male head, if any) – number in household
  6. Female family-members (including female head, if any) – number in household
  7. Male servants – number in household
  8. Female servants – number in household
  9. Total in household (a useful check on the analysis columns 5-8 & 10-13)
10. Established Church – number in household
11. Roman Catholic – number in household
12. Presbyterian – number in household
13. Other Protestant Dissenters – number in household

Columns 5 to 13 are summed and carried over at each page-turn, and totalled for each street or townland (or subsection of a townland). Townland totals are summarised at the end of a parish, and summed to give totals for the parish.

Note that townland names do not necessarily correspond to the later administrative townlands, which were formalised shortly after the 1831 Census.

This page was last updated 3 Sep 2016