Irish Ancestry Research Centre

The cheapest GEDCOM file is only €39. Prices vary depending on the size of the file and the number of households per file.

But the cost works out at approximately 20c per record, which will include, surname, forename, age, religion, marital status, occupation, year of birth (based on age), literacy including whether can speak Irish, special illnesses, and connection in the household (head of, wife, child, visitor, boarder etc) A short biography is also provided.

So a file of a town with 2000 inhabitants on Census night would cost about €400 to purchase and download ready to upload in minutes.

We prepare all the files inhouse. We access the 1901 Census Records and then code every individual in a way that links husbands and wives as well as their offspring, so that a GEDCOM file can be created. We test all the files to ensure they can be uploaded correctly.

We also prepare URL links back to the townland or street in the Census Records to make it easier for you to find the record in the Census. This is extremely helpful when checking spellings or finding out was anyone other than family in the household, such as servants, boarders, or visitors, all of whom are included in the GEDCOM file but linked to a family only by address. 

You can also explore details on the house and outbuildings occupied by the family.  

Most genealogy researchers, amateur and professional alike, concentrate their research on families.

Our GEDCOM files are by location. By doing all the preparation work for you to create the GEDCOM file, it enables you to utilize the incredible hints and research resources on the likes of Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast etc immediately, saving you valuable time. 

You can concentrate your valuable time on researching and less time on preparing, knowing that you have a file of all residents on March 31st 1901. 

Social and local historians, students completing school projects, local history groups, writers submitting articles to local publications, those promoting ancestral tourism, all can benefit from researching the 1901 Census by location.

The magic only happens when the GEDCOM file is imported into a genealogy software programme, thanks to the advanced AI and OCR technology adopted by the large genealogy platforms. 

Who were your grandparents neighbours? What did they work at, when were the children born, who emigrated and who stayed, how did local families intermarry, what were the economic conditions like, did anybody famous, or infamous, live in the neighbourhood, who would serve or perish in WWI or participate in the 1916 Rising? 

Can you find your living relatives in Ireland?

We have started to prepare our files for County Kildare which had 64k residents approximately in 1901. New GEDCOM files are uploaded every day.

But if you want us to prepare a GEDCOM file for your special place anywhere in Ireland we can do that on request. Contact us (see below) and we will research how large the file is and send you a quote to prepare it and a date of delivery. Once accepted an a deposit paid, your order will be prioritised.

As a guide, a GEDCOM file  will cost about €50 for every 250 people in it.

The 1901 Irish Census is the oldest complete Census for the country. The 1911 Census is also available to search online. These are the only two, but the 1926 Census is due for release in April 2026.

The information recorded in 1901 and 1911 is the same except for the addition in 1911 of a column recording how many years of marriage, how many children the couple had and how many are alive on Census night. 

We wanted to ensure our files only record an individual once, so the 1901 Census is ideal for that. When you upload the GEDCOM file to a genealogy platform, there will be lots of hints to link the records to the 1911 Census return for the same individuals. 

The first attempt at a Census in Ireland was made in 1813 but was abandoned. The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War, supposedly because of the paper shortage. Strangely the English census records didn’t suffer the same fate. 

The returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were, apart from a few survivals, notably for a few counties for 1821 and 1831, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Civil War.

Ireland only publishes Census records on their centenary. The 1926 Census was the first one taken by the Irish Free State and will be available to the public in April 2026. 

Our 1901 GEDCOM files are a perfect starting point to carry out research by location in anticipation of the publication of the 1926 Census. 

No is the short answer. You should always create a NEW tree when you upload our GEDCOM file.

Our files maintain a numerical sequence for each person that may conflict with your existing family tree file.