The 1901 Census of Ireland is the earliest complete census to survive which gives details on individuals. These details are Christian name and surname, relationship to the head of the family, religion, ability to read and write, age, sex, occupation, marital status, county of birth, ability to speak Irish and English and whether a person is deaf, dumb, idiot or lunatic. A form (Form A) was filled in for each household and these were collected and arranged by townland, and then by District Electoral Division (DED). Each DED has a number, beginning with Abbey DED (no. 1) and ending with Tulla DED (no. 154). Townlands within the DEDs are also numbered as they occur, thus the third townland within Abbey DED - Ballyvelaghan - is no. 1/3. Where a townland is recorded as having no occupants, the term 'Nil' is written after the townland name under the DED list of townlands. If you do not know which DED a townland is in, check the Townland Index.

Within each townland, the Form As for each family are given as they appear in the census. The term 'Head of Family' denotes the beginning of a separate household group, which extends until the next 'Head of Family' is recorded. We have included the 'Deaf, dumb, idiot or lunatic' box when there was an entry, otherwise it has been omitted.In addition to the household forms (Form A), other types of forms were used to enumerate people who were not in private households on census night, for example those in hospitals, workhouses, boarding schools, prisons and mental institutions as well as members of the RIC, Coastguard and those on ships off the coast. These forms are included in the main census under the townland in which the institution is situated, or they can be accessed by clicking here.

Geographical Arrangement The DEDs are arranged by Poor Law Union in alphabetical order as follows:

POOR LAW UNIONS Ballyvaghan Union Corrofin Union Ennis Union Ennistimon Union Killadysert Union Kilrush Union Limerick Union Scarriff Union Tulla Union

Surname Index:
We have also arranged the census records alphabetically by surname.

The material was transcribed from the original Census forms by trainees of the Clare Local Studies Project (CLASP) and converted to HTML by Connie Guthrie and Mona O’Connor of Clare County Library.