1911 Census-Lisaphooca

My work this week was to transfer information on one area in Cork called Lisaphooca, from the 1911 Census, onto a spreadsheet. Thankfully I did this before the weekend as it took longer than I expected!! Transferring the information was fine only I had to be careful not to put in the information in the wrong places which I did a couple a times but fixed later! I then found the mean, mode and median. I think I did them right? I am not sure, but I did use a calculator instead of the spreadsheet tool which does that as I kept messing it up somehow! :( I also asked my sister for help she does Maths, but I ended up telling her how to do it! So I hope it is right. :) I got the blank spreadsheet off of blackboard and added in the columns titled "Diff", "1st Child", "Children", and "Intervals". These columns offer the significance of the information as they shine light on the general life of the time in respect to family size, age woman was when giving birth, intervals between having children and the difference in age between husband and wife. These were interesting to look at as differences can obviously be seen when comparing this information to the same areas of life today.

Out of the three married couples there was a ten year age gap in two of the marriages which if compared to today this large age gap is not seen as much as it would have been in 1911. The ages the women were when they gave birth to their first child was quite varied, they were 23,30 and 40. 40 in particular I thought was quite old to have a child I think it would be seen as old today if a woman had a child at 40. At the time of the census though this age may suggest that the women had children earlier but they are dead or have left the family. The ages the women were when giving birth to their other children are not out of the ordinary as they range between 24 and 36. The intervals between having children however I found interesting as there was not much time left between them at all, as they were between one and two years. Today a three year gap between children is favoured by a lot of families. A 53 year old woman who worked as a servant could neither read nor write which I did not find too unusual considering her age and occupation however there was a 30 year old woman also who could neither read nor write which I found odd as I could not imagine not being able to read or write at that age.

It is clear when looking at these examples how Ireland has progressed in the almost one hundred years which have past since the census was taken. More people can now read and write, there are smaller families and in the majority of cases around three years between children. These examples show the progress which has been made in education and family-planning in particular which has been made throughout the years since. People now do not depend upon the farm as much as then also, as practically every occupation in these examples were connected to farming. A different way of life in a sense is on offer in Ireland today in comparison to these examples of 1911!