Try different spellings
Surname spellings were more consistent by the 1920s, but variations still occur, either in the original return or during transcription. Try alternative spellings or use a wildcard symbol * to replace part of a name.
For example, searching for Cle* will return Cleary, Clements, Cleland and other close matches. M*Gee will return McGee, MacGee and Magee
O’ and Mc/Mac names
Prefixes appear in many forms:
O’Riley, ORiley, O Riley, McCormick, MacCormick, Mc Cormick.
Using wildcards can help:
- O’R* returns O’Reilly, O’Rourke, O’Riordan, and more.
Search for other household members
If your direct ancestor isn’t appearing, try searching for a sibling or spouse instead. Civil birth registrations at irishgenealogy.ie can help you identify a group of siblings, especially from 1898 onwards when mother’s maiden name was added to the index.
Search by address- use the map
If you know the family’s townland or street from a birth, marriage or death record, you can navigate directly to the relevant county and District Electoral Division (DED), Townland or Street on the map and browse the households listed there.
Searching Irish‑language forms
The 1926 Census was the first to allow people to complete their form in Irish.
If you can’t find someone using the English version of their name, try the Irish version instead. For example, Michael Cleary may appear as Micheál Ó Cléirigh. You can also search by place or use the map to browse all households in a townland or street.
Irish‑language forms appear across the country—not only in Gaeltacht areas but also in towns and cities. In some areas, especially parts of Donegal, enumerators completed the forms on behalf of households, often writing in English.
All Irish‑language forms were manually transcribed by National Archives staff. Older spellings, dialect forms and traditional script can vary widely, so names have been transcribed as written on the page. Modern spellings are used where needed to make searching easier, and traditional séimhiú marks (dots) have been transcribed using the letter “h”. Names have not been translated, as this could change their meaning or introduce errors.
If you’re unsure of the Irish version of a name, there are two useful approaches. One option is to search using the Irish first name, which can be easier than identifying the Irish surname straight away. For example, searching for Pádraig rather than Patrick, or Siobhán instead of Joan or Johanna, will bring up a list of matching entries, and you can then scroll through the surnames to find the correct household.
If you want to check the Irish form of a surname directly, the Irish Surnames Index on Gaois.ie is a helpful resource.
Finding people in institutions
Large institutions such as industrial schools, hospitals, barracks, asylums and workhouses often appear in the census as long, continuous lists of residents. Because of their size and the way they were recorded, searching for someone in an institution can work a little differently from searching for a private household.
The most effective approach is usually to search by place rather than by name. Institutions are listed under the name of the head of household — for example a superintendent, matron, brother or officer — rather than under the names of the residents themselves. Once you locate the institution through its townland or street, you can scroll through the full sequence of forms to view everyone living there on census night.