National Archives records 20 million hits on first weekend of Census 1926 release

The National Archives of Ireland (NAI) recorded 20 million hits to its website following the release of the first census of the Irish Free State in 1926 on Saturday.

NAI director Orlaith McBride said the service has been “overwhelmed by the response” to the release, according to The Irish Times.

Over the course of the first two days of the release, there were one million individual site visits.

The 1926 individual census returns have been made searchable online for the first time, with the data detailing the ages, occupations, religions and genders of citizens in the then newly established Irish Free State.

In addition, the website recorded one million downloads over the weekend. Traffic to the site is coming predominantly from Ireland followed by the UK, the US, Australia and Canada, respectively.

“It’s been so positive. People have waited so long for it,” McBride said. “People have been very moved and touched. Many people have contacted me saying how emotional they were when they found their family returns.”

From Friday, April 17th, to Monday, April 20th, Google search terms “census”, “1926″ and “census 1926″ spiked by 120 per cent according to the search engine’s own Google Trends data.