Civil Records

IMPORTANT
This search facility requires the user to filter by Parish first. If you do not know the parish, please use the Search by Name page instead.

Introduction

The 1911 Census of county Cavan took place on 2 April 1911. This is the second earliest surviving complete set of Census records for the county and represents one of the most important datasets which is available to researchers be they local historians, genealogists or anybody with an interest in their family history. We are fortunate that the 1901 and 1911 Census returns had not yet been deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland prior to the Battle of the Four Courts in June 1922 when the archives including the Census returns of 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were lost in the ensuing fire. The 1861-91 Census returns had been destroyed or pulped by government order before 1919, on grounds of confidentiality and need for paper during the war years.

The originals are now held by the National Archives of Ireland who established a research partnership with Library and Archives Canada to facilitate digitisation, indexing and contextualisation of the 1901 and 1911 census records. The website was launched in December 2007.

The 1911 records for Cavan contain 91,343 individual records. At the time of writing we have just included these records on Cavantownlands.ie to complete our dataset of available census and census-substitute records 1821-1911, now consisting of 345,000 individual records.

Re-indexation of records by townland and parish

Anyone who has used the NAI website to search these records will know that their dataset is indexed by Townland and DED (District Electoral Division). Prior to this Census returns and earlier surveys were compiled by townland and parish and it is the townland which is most relevant for historical research. Townland records can be traced back to the 17th century and beyond. The DED is a relatively new denomination and it’s use only commenced in 1898 (previously known as poor law electoral divisions which had boundaries redrawn in many instances and were renamed district electoral divisions) thus limiting the ability to compare with earlier records. The NAI website search by townland does not take into account issues we have identified with older name versions, misspellings and incorrect transcriptions which we believe may conceal c.50% of searches carried out by townland name. We have rectified this issue here by re-indexing the entire dataset in accordance with the approved Logainm.ie categorisation (the official placename database of Ireland).

Search the records

Results have been grouped by parish to speed the search process and to reduce the amount of data that is downloaded. Use the map to select a parish. All records for the selected parish will be displayed in the table below. Use the filters in the column headings to further filter the data. Each sequence of characters entered will be matched with the same sequence occurring anywhere in the values for that column.

Tip: If you are searching for a name starting with O’ (for example, O’Brien), enter “brien” in the column filter. Or if searching for “Mc” names (for example, McCormack), enter “cormack” in the column filter.

Parish Records

IMPORTANT
This search facility requires the user to filter by Parish first. If you do not know the parish, please use the Search by Name page instead.

Introduction

The 1901 Census of county Cavan took place on 31st March 1901. The 1911 census was taken on 2 April 1911. This is the earliest surviving complete set of census records for the county and represents one of the most important datasets which is available to researchers be they local historians, genealogists or anybody with an interest in their family history. We are fortunate that the 1901 and 1911 Census returns had not yet been deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland prior to the Battle of the Four Courts in June 1922 when the archives including the census returns of 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were lost in the ensuing fire. The 1861-91 Census returns had been destroyed or pulped by government order before 1919, on grounds of confidentiality and need for paper during the war years.

The originals are now held by the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) who established a research partnership with Library and Archives Canada to facilitate digitisation, indexing and contextualisation of the 1901 and 1911 census records. The website was launched in December 2007.

The 1901 records for Cavan contain 97,437 individual records and 91,343 for 1911. At the time of writing we have just included these records on Cavantownlands.ie to complete our dataset of available census and census-substitute records 1821-1911, now consisting of 345,000 individual records.

Re-indexation of records by townland and parish

Anyone who has used the NAI website to search these records will know that their dataset is indexed by Townland and DED (District Electoral Division). Prior to this Census returns and earlier surveys were compiled by townland and parish and it is the townland which is most relevant for historical research. Townland records can be traced back to the 17th century and beyond. The DED is a relatively new denomination and it’s use only commenced in 1898 (previously known as poor law electoral divisions which had boundaries redrawn in many instances and were renamed district electoral divisions) thus limiting the ability to compare with earlier records. The NAI website search by townland does not take into account issues we have identified with older name versions, misspellings and incorrect transcriptions which we believe may conceal c.50% of searches carried out by townland name. We have rectified this issue here by re-indexing the entire dataset in accordance with the approved Logainm.ie categorisation (the official placename database of Ireland).

Search the records

Results have been grouped by parish to speed the search process and to reduce the amount of data that is downloaded. Use the map to select a parish. All records for the selected parish will be displayed in the table below. Use the filters in the column headings to further filter the data. Each sequence of characters entered will be matched with the same sequence occurring anywhere in the values for that column.

Tip: If you are searching for a name starting with O’ (for example, O’Brien), enter “brien” in the column filter. Or if searching for “Mc” names (for example, McCormack), enter “cormack” in the column filter.

Parish Records

1836 Name Book records for the townlands of 9 parishes first published in The Heart of Breifne.

The preparation of the six inch to one mile scale maps of the entire island of Ireland, which was conducted by The Ordnance Survey of Ireland between 1824 and 1846, required the naming of townlands, geographical features, prominent buildings and landmarks. The renowned Irish scholar, John O’Donovan, was given the task of ascertaining accurately the old Irish names of the townlands,  their translation and making recommendations for the final English version to be used in the printed maps. This he did with great skill and attention to detail. He visited Cavan in 1836 and his travels are recorded in his Ordnance Survey Letters which were reports and requests written to the OS headquarters in the Phoenix Park. The orthography section of the Name Books include the received name, the final agreed name and translations as well as other versions which were encountered. The final section of the field name books under the headings ‘Situation’ and ‘Descriptive Remarks’ typically provide details on the exact location and description of boundaries along with notes on soils, farming practices, leases and rents, prominent buildings, employment and landlord names. Here we reproduce, courtesy of Anna Sexton editor of The Heart of Breifne,  the summarised Descriptive Remarks which were transcribed by Liam O’Ceallaigh and published over the years 1979-1987. The nine parishes covered are: Bailieborough, Castlerahan, Crosserlough, Denn, Killinkere, Knockbride, Lavey, Munterconnaught and Shercock.