Exploring the 1901 and 1911 census of Ireland

I recently came across the Irish Surnames Map by Barry Griffin. This website uses census data from the 1901 and 1911 censuses of Ireland and maps them across the island - showing where surnames and forenames are most located. Lots of interesting things to discover!

On that website, I learned there were only 6 people named Adrian living in Ireland in 1901. Not very many, but I suppose the name became more popular in the 20th century. 

Exploring that website led me on to the actual census data websites, run by the National Archives of Ireland. This site includes the 1901 and 1911 census records, and you can search it right down to the individual or household level. I think I found records of my great-great-grandmother and great-grandfather and saw their handwriting (my surname is one of the most common, as were their forenames, so I'm not 100% sure).

You can also search the data by origin. Within Ireland, that means which county they are from. Outside Ireland, it means country. 

Ireland is now a very multinational and multicultural country. There's often some kind of belief that this is all new, but these records show that people from outside Ireland have lived here for more than a century.

I find all manner of interesting records. Here are some highlights.

• In 1911, 365 people were listed as being from Italy, just a small increase from the 243 in 1901. The most common surname was Forte. They have a variety of occupations, with those relating to ice-cream the most common, as well as scholars, various shop professions and organ grinders.
  
  
• In both years, there are around 3,900 whose country is listed as Russia. The majority of these have names that are Jewish. More than 2,000 live in Dublin, with others in various other counties, including one person, Joseph Fine, living in Leitrim.
  
  
• 18-year-old Carlos Cornelia Nissen was listed as being from 'Buenous Ayres South America'. In 1911, he was living with his aunt Mary Sheehan in Cappamore and working as a postman. In fact, on both censuses, there were around 100 people listed as being from Buenos Aires (using a variety of spellings). For example, one family in Wexford have two children who were listed as being from 'Buenos Ayres'.
  
  
• A Dutch classics and languages teacher living in Dublin. He was 52 and living with his wife, who was from Tyrone. I wonder how they met?
  
  
• In Loughrea, County Galway, a convent of Carmelite Nuns included 23-year-old Diavolinda Ferreira, who was from Portugal.
  
  
• A Greek electrical engineer living in Belfast: 29-year-old Panagos Koconis was from the island of Patmos and married to Catherine from Greenock in Scotland. Their son Emmanuel was one year old.
  
  
• A 34-year-old German masseuse named Sinon in Blarney, Country Cork who was staying or working or living (census record isn't clear) at a 'hydrophatic establishment'. This establishment may well be the Saint Anne's Hydro and Turkish Baths, which were a popular spa resort in the area in the 1900s. The venue records about 90 different guests there on the night of the 1901 Census. The spa now seems to be mostly long gone (but what remains is a protected structure) but a recent article implies there is a plan to redevelop it.
  
  
• Spanish Salvador Gomez was 18 years old and studying dentistry, and his compatriot Anthony Russo was 22 and studying medicine. In 1911, both were boarding with Sarah McSwiney from Kerry in Dublin, along with two others.
  
  
• August Pedro Piloto is 24 and a farm servant. He is living in Loughgall, a small village in Armagh, and described as being from 'E Africa'. 
  
  
• Alvino Luja is 26 years old, a teacher of French and German from Luxembourg. In 1911, she was living in Dublin at a school, Dominican College Sion Hill. It is one of the oldest girls' secondary schools in Ireland, founded in 1836.

These are just 10 examples from the thousands, if not millions, of interesting stories found in the 1901 and 1911 census. Anyone can explore these census records online via the National Archives of Ireland.

Ireland's census history is patchy. After 1901 and 1911, the next scheduled census was 1921, but this was cancelled due to war. A census was held in 1926, the first after Irish independence. Now, 100 years later, the records from the 1926 census will be released in April of this year.

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In search of Virgínia Quaresma

While working remotely from Lisbon a few months ago, I researched and wrote an article about Virgínia Quaresma, which has just been published. Virgínia Quaresma was Portugal's first female reporter, she was mixed-race and a lesbian.

Virgínia Quaresma, Wikimedia Commons

She lived from 1882 to 1973. There are very few pictures of her, so while working on the article in my hotel, I suddenly thought I could literally go to visit some places connected to her.

I knew there was a street named after her and the address of her last apartment. The street was a bus ride away in Caselas, which felt very suburban, and the apartment was in the centre of Lisbon.

Rua do Salitre 106

The next day, I thought of going to the cemetery where she is buried. That's a bit morbid, but so little exists about her (at least online), I thought it would be nice to pay homage to a remarkable woman.

It took me two attempts to go because of very large rainstorms, but when I arrived, it was a sunny and clear autumn morning.

I went with no plan. Looking around, I realise the cemetery is huge. It would take ages to find anything. 

Then I notice the secretario. In this little office, two ladies were working. They only spoke Portuguese, so I explained in my limited language skills what I was looking for. The office radio was playing Ed Sheeran and Camilo Cabello's song Bam Bam, which was a cheerfully-weird-surreal touch.

One of the women took out a huge book, a volume from 1973 when Virgínia died. 

Scanning page after page, she eventually finds the records for Virgínia Quaresma. Sadly, her grave had been exhumed in 1986. Her last partner, her wife, had died before her. I guess she had no children, and nobody paid for the upkeep. It's pretty sad. 

As the song goes: Así es la vida, sí, Yeah, that's just life, baby. I'm glad I went to find out this information, and was able in my own way to mark the life of Virgínia Quaresma.

Anne Frank House Emotions

I've just come back from Amsterdam where I visited the Anne Frank House.

It stirs many emotions...

...Sadness that this whole sorry episode of history happened.

...Anger that people can be so cruel.

...Proud of those that helped.

...Introspection: would you have done the same?

...Surprise that it is larger than previously imagined.

...Irritation at those visitors who seem more interested in talking about lunch.

...Bewilderment at the need to 'museum-ify' the house.

...Understanding that this is so others can learn.

...Humour remembering David Sedaris' sad and satirical story set there.

...Melancholy reading that teenage Peter was given a razor and cigarette lighter as birthday gifts.

...Relief that he was given gifts at all.

...Hope that this teaches the world important lessons.

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True or False Tour #2

A colleague who hadn't been on our True or False Tour / Pub Crawl in January asked me to do it again. I jumped at the chance - it was such fun putting it together.

So yesterday, I joined my colleague, and Susanna, Tobias & Caitlin from Sweden to see London, drink in some pubs, and tell lies and tell the truth.

I made a few changes this time around. Instead of having a helper, I was more like a traditional tour guide - except some of my stories were true, and some were false.

This gave me flexibility to make bits up as I was going along, and meant I wasn't talking for a very long time!

I'm happy to report it all went swimmingly well. Caitlin remarked at one point that I should do more of these tours, and I certainly am planning too.

So, in the meantime, if anyone wants a tour around London with fun true-or-false quiz game built in, let me know!

History of my House - Southwark local history library

I've been digging more into the history of my house. The street does not appear on the 1911 census, so I surmised it either had a different name in 1911 or didn't exist.

Looking at some old maps in the RGS Reading Room brought a little enlightenment - I saw a map from the late 1800s with no street, and one from 1920 with a street. So, it was built sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, making it Edwardian, or (very) late Victorian.

I ordered Godfrey edition maps from 1894 and 1914 which confirmed this (fantastically swift customer service from Alan Godfrey Maps, by the way).

Southwark's local history library - temporarily relocated to Peckham due to renovation - had an index of streets which indicated that street was given its name in 1911. So, the street is 98 years old.

Much more excitingly, in the local history library, I found out the names of all voters who lived in the house from electoral registers.

The earliest I can trace on the street is 1913, but for the first few years my house number is not used (maybe the house was empty? Or maybe the occupants didn't have the right to vote).

And then, from 1918 onwards, these people lived in my house:

• 1918 - 1929 - Daniel & Clara Ayling
  
• 1929-1931 Frederick Jordan, Alice Jordan & Frederick Thomas Jordan
• 1931-1938 Alice Jordan & Frederick Thomas Jordan
• 1938-1939 Alice Jordan
  
• 1939-1940 Thomas Williams & Ellen Alice Williams
  
• 1940-1945 - ?
  
• 1945 - 1959 - George & Amelia Fleming
  
• 1960-1965 - William & Elizabeth Coulson
• 1965-1975 - William Coulson
  
• 1975-1989 - George & Rosa Knott, with Carole Knott & Christine Knott

Sadly when I got to 2008, I expected to find my name on the register (I was getting very excited about it) but I wasn't there! I had taken myself off the list to reduce junk mail. I may reverse that decision for posterity purposes.

My next stop is the London Metropolitan Archives to find out more about the building of the street - and to see if I can work out why it is Ambergate Street.

History of my House

I recently read Home: by Julie Myerson (she's been in the news recently for her book about her son's drug abuse - but Home's infinitely more interesting). In it, she traces the history of everyone who lived in her Clapham home.

And it's fascinating. I was engrossed and inspired - I suddenly wanted to find out more about my house.

I live in Kennington in south London, on a street called Ambergate Street. It extends on from one called Alberta Street (by the way - please don't stalk me, thanks).

Given the name Alberta, from Albert, we've always assumed the street was Victorian. I've wondered about the name Ambergate - Ambergate is a village in Derbyshire, could it be named after that?

I do know that prior to there being a street here, there was a zoo - the Royal Surrey Zoological Gardens. Now all that remains is a small park called Surrey Gardens.

So from a zoo to a quiet residential terrace - there's a lot to find out about!

True or False Tour & London Historic Pubs Crawl

It was a colleague's birthday yesterday, and we all went on a pub crawl around some of London's historic pubs.

I had been tasked with devising an activity or game to make the night go with a bang. I thought up a True or False quiz, based on an idea by several bees.

Along the route at each pub, we stopped and heard two stories. I enlisted a helper to tell one story, and I told the other. One of us was telling the trute, and the other making it up.

The game was to guess which was which. If answered correctly, you got a prize.

Our route took us from legal Holborn through carvernous bars to religious Blackfriars:

• The Seven Stars
• The Citie of Yorke
• The Mitre Tavern
• Ye Olde Chesire Cheese
• The Blackfriars

Along the way we heard stories about telescopes, parrots, queens, bishops, mayors, egg-breaking and lots more interesting things. Some true, some false.

Happily, the audience was divided on every occasion as to what was true and what was false, leading to much spirited debate and laughter.

I thoroughly enjoyed devising this and learning more about history and trivia, and happily my colleague did too, sending me this message at the end of the evening: "Thanks so much for being such winning hosts! It was a great evening, beautifully orchestrated."