Enhanced search across 2,972,451 records
The 1926 Census recorded nearly three million people across the 26 counties of the Irish Free State. This guide explains how to find your ancestors using the extended search tool at 1926census.ie — and what to try when the obvious search doesn't work.
Ready to start? The search tool is free and requires no account.
Search the 1926 Census →Each of the 2,972,451 records includes:
Type the surname into the Surname field. The search uses contains matching by default — "mur" returns Murphy, Murray, Murren, and others. Tick Exact name match only for a precise match.
After typing a surname, the tool shows known Irish/English spelling variants as clickable chips. Searching Murphy shows Morphy, Murphey, and Murfy. Click a chip to search that spelling instead. See the full name variants guide for the complete list of clusters.
Select a county from the dropdown to reduce results dramatically. You can also type a partial townland or street name, or a District Electoral Division. Townland and DED names in results link to Logainm for place name context.
Filter by age range, sex, religion, Irish language ability, marital status, birthplace, and occupation. These are especially useful when a name is common — combining "Murphy" with "Cork" and "age 35–45" will often narrow thousands of results to a handful.
Click any name in the results to open the full record panel. This shows all fields including relationship to household head, source PDF filename, image group, and a direct link to view the record on the National Archives site.
Click Export CSV to download up to 1,000 records. The URL updates as you search — copy it to save or share any filtered view.
The three censuses together let you track a family over 25 years. A person aged 30 in 1926 would have been about 5 in 1901 and 16 in 1911. The 1901 and 1911 records are searchable on the National Archives site and IrishGenealogy.ie. Confirming details in the earlier censuses first makes 1926 searches more targeted.
All 26 counties of the Irish Free State: Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow. Northern Ireland conducted a separate census and is not included.
The data comes directly from the National Archives of Ireland's own database. Ages were sometimes estimated and names were written as heard by the enumerator — which is why spelling variants matter so much. The search tool uses normalised fields where available, but always links to the original scanned form so you can check the primary source.
Yes. The URL updates to reflect all active filters as you search. Copy the URL from your browser to save or share any search — for example /?surname=Murphy&county=Cork. You can also deep-link to a specific open record by adding &a_id= followed by the record ID.
No. This is an independent tool that accesses the same underlying data via the National Archives API. It provides more filter fields and features than the official search interface. All records link back to the original source on nationalarchives.ie.
A District Electoral Division (DED) was the smallest administrative unit used for the 1926 Census — smaller than a county but larger than a townland. Searching by DED is useful when you know a general area but the townland name is unclear. DED names in results link to Logainm for geographic context.
Search 2,972,451 records from the 1926 Irish Census — free, no account needed.
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