Here's hoping: The quest for access to the 1926 Irish census

Doing genealogy in Ireland? Join the campaign to request access to the 1926 census of Ireland. Originally scheduled to be released one-hundred years after its creation, there is hope that it might be made available to researchers in the near future.

The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) is calling for signatures on a petition to request access to these records immediately, instead of after the currently required one-hundred year waiting period. According to their website:

"CIGO is not alone in regretting that the State’s [Ireland's] access policy to census records does not follow the U.S. model, which releases records after seventy years rather than one hundred. This approach appears to work well and is generally accepted by U.S. citizens."

The census is of interest to many researching the genealogy of their Irish families, and both Irish and non-Irish citizens are requested to sign the petition. As CIGO states on their webpage explaining the value of the census data, "a very large percentage of the people enumerated would have been born before civil registration began in Ireland in 1864." The 1926 census was the first one taken in the Irish Free State.

Sadly, Irish researchers will find that Ireland's census records available for research are few and far between. The 1910 and 1911 census returns are currently in the process of being digitized by the National Archives of Ireland. However, Ireland's censuses for the years 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were destroyed by fire in 1922 during the Irish civil war. Censuses for the years 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 were destroyed because of a bureaucratic oversight.

For more details about the 1926 Irish census visit CIGO's webpage Current Campaigns - The 1926 Census or go directly to sign the petition to open access to the 1926 census of Ireland.

Thanks to Margaret Jordan's Cork Genealogist for sharing the news about the petition.

Your Irish ancestors are online

...or they may be soon.

The Irish Times has announced the National Archives of Ireland's digitization of the 1911 census for Dublin, and is working to add all counties of Ireland for both the 1911 and 1901 censuses.

This is great news for Irish genealogists! Particularly interesting is the fact that, unlike census returns of the U.S. and other English-speaking countries, the records are actually the forms filled out and signed by the head of household, not the census enumerator.

Had your ancestors all emigrated before 1901? You may still find the project relevant to your search for family history. As mentioned by Megan of Roots Television, siblings and other family members often remained behind. Personally, I'm looking forward to searching for any of the elusive Cowhey family members who might have remained in County Cork or neighboring counties. Looks like Cork is one of the first counties on the planned digitization schedule. Thanks to the National Archives of Ireland for making research easier on us long-distance cousins!

Thanks to Chris Denham at The Genealogue for announcing this exciting Irish genealogy news in such a timely manner.

"Noisy, dirty, bouncy & subject to temperature extremes"

In many ways, William Cowhey's life paralleled the life of the railroads in America. As I mentioned previously, he was born in New York in 1834 at the dawn of those railroads. According to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's Railroad History Timeline, this was the same year the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad opened in Pennsylvania. It included an inclined plane, rail and canal route stretching 395 miles across the state.

By 1842, when William was 8-years-old, the Philadelphia & Reading Railway began shipping hard coal from mines in Schuylkill County's southern anthracite field directly to Philadelphia.

Sometime before the 1860's, the Cowhey family had moved to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. By the time 27-year-old William served as a volunteer in the Civil War during 1861, the railroads were part of daily life. They played their own role in the war between the states.

During the heyday of the railroad, the lives of the men who ran the trains were surely never easy.

We know several jobs on the railroad that my great-great-grandfather held, thanks to U.S. Census records and newspaper articles.

At the time of the 1870 U.S. Census, William Cowhey was working as a brakeman at age 36.

Ten years later at age 46 the 1880 U.S. Census shows his occupation as fireman. In this role he would have performed many different tasks, according to a page on the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania website. These included:

• Making sure the engine's fire stayed hot enough by shoveling coal into the firebox
• Adjusting the stoker to keep the steam up
• Keeping the boiler supplied with water
• Verifying signals with the engineer
• Filling the tender with water at the water tank
• Oiling the valves, rods and fittings between runs
• Working closely with the engineer to keep the train running efficiently and on time

After many years of hard work as fireman an employee of the railroad might eventually receive a promotion to engineer. William Cowhey received such a promotion. The Pottsville Daily Republican newspaper article of November 14, 1892 documenting the account of his fateful accident on the railroad lists his title as engineer.

The job of the engineer, according to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania webpage, required much skill and stamina. I quote:

"Steam engine cabs were very noisy, dirty, bouncy and subject to temperature extremes."

A tough day's work, but one that helped William Cowhey to provide for his wife and their large and growing family.

(Lacking a photo of my great-great-grandfather and his fellow railroaders, I've posted a photo of this Gordon Steam Engine and its team of railroad men from Schuylkill County. )

William Cowhey's life came to an ubrupt end one night on the railroad. The heyday of the railroad itself had a more gradual ending, but it would eventually lose ground to other modes of transportation. The Pennsylvania Railroad ended its use of steam locomotives in 1957. Ironically that was the same year that William's son Charles (also a railroad man) passed away. The heyday of the trains that the Cowhey men had lived their lives in and around was now a part of the history books.

For more information about the history of the railroads in Pennsylvania, see the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Railways, or the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society.

Thanks to Margaret Ringenary for posting the steam engine photo of her great-great-grandfather and his fellow railroaders at the Schuylkill County Scrapbook website.

Worth remembering

About a century and half had passed. No one in today's generation of his family even knew his name, and certainly had no idea of what he had done. William Cowhey's memory had been lost to history. Or so it could have been.

It was a thrill for me to find the name of my great-great-grandfather in the U.S. Census records a few years ago. I carefully entered his name into the family tree, then over time, as I found more of the pieces of the puzzle of his life, I entered them.

The more I learned, the more I was amazed. He became a hero to me, and I wanted others to know his name and remember his life.

So on this Veteran's Day 2007, I remember with honor the life of my great-great-grandfather, William Cowhey (1834-1892). A railroad man who died in a train accident while heading home from his shift one night, William was surely a hero to his wife and many children.

He was also a hero to our nation. Serving as an early volunteer from Pennsylvania to help counter the "Rebellion", as they called the Civil War, he and his brother Thomas and their Company I-16 of Pottsville (the "Anthracite Guards") bravely set forth to protect their nation.

William and Thomas' three-month military careers were short but important at this turning point in 1861. Their company was recruited at Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania on April 26, 1861. Twenty-six-year-old William and 21-year-old Thomas and their company did not see too much action before they were discharged on July 25, 1861. But they played a role in one of the most important parts of our nation's history: a role that I hope will not be forgotten.

On this Veterans' Day, Small-leaved Shamrock honors all veterans and all military personnel currently serving their country. Though the words may seem inadequate: Thank-you.

For more information about the Anthracite Guards of Company I-16 see the History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers by Samuel Bates at Pennsylvania Civil War website or the History of Schuylkill County, PA by W. W. Munsell online. You can also find an index to Munsell's work online.

If you are interested in learning more about Schuylkill County's contribution to the Civil War, you might be interested in the Schuylkill Civil War Round Table.

Additional Civil War posts on Small-leaved Shamrock may be found about William Cowhey's Civil War pension file, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a PBS History Detectives episode on the GAR, and the Pennsylvania State Monument at Gettysburg honoring Civil War soldiers.

Note: The United States flag pictured above is a 34-star flag used during the time of the Civil War.

Now's your chance - free access to Ancestry.com

Want to try your hand at a little family history research? Take advantage of three free days of access to Ancestry.com. Free access to Ancestry is usually available at many local libraries (although there is no remote access for library patrons). Subscription prices for personal access, however, are quite steep. And personally, I prefer burning the midnight oil when my library's doors have long been closed.

Take advantage of this opportunity and take a look at some online records, including:

• U.S. Census records
• City directories
• Immigration records
• Marriage records
• Old newspapers
• Military records
• More, more, more...

Have fun! And please let me know if you make any exciting discoveries.

Knock, knock...

Two-hundred and seventeen years ago yesterday, on August 1, 1790, census-takers went door to door knocking on homes in the young United States of America and the first official U.S. Census of the United States was completed. If you're old enough, you may remember participating in one or more yourself. (The last U.S. Census was completed in the year 2000.)

The U.S. Census is a goldmine for family history researchers and it was one of the first places I started when I began looking for information about our family. At this time, the most recent census information available to researchers is the 1930 census, and I started there and went back each decade as I learned more about different branches of our family.

Each census year provides a little bit different information, including home addresses, family members' occupations, ages, birthplaces, and more.

Below is an image from the 1920 Census showing Charles & Agnes Cowhey and their young daughter Annie and Charles' sister and brother Blanche & Ambrose residing at 68 Main Street, Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania.


If you are interested in taking a look at original census records yourself, you can access them free via Ancestry.com at most local libraries. If you have a library card, you can access the census records from your home computer via most local library websites' connection to Heritage Quest online. (Unfortunately, Ancestry.com does not allow remote access for library users, and their subscription prices are pretty steep.) Some census records are also available online at the LDS Family Search website. Each site has a different search engine so sometimes you can find your family census records on one site when you can't find them on others.

Family Tree Magazine's website has some easy to use downloadable forms for the U.S. Census and other family history purposes. Print out a stack of these for each census year that you are taking a look at and it will make it easier to understand what you are reading. I hope you'll enjoy trying your hand at a little family history research yourself. Please let me know if you make any exciting discoveries!