If you have been researching Irish ancestors for any length of time, you probably have census links saved everywhere — in your family tree notes, in emails to relatives, in documents and spreadsheets. And if you have tried to open any of them recently, you may have discovered a nasty surprise: they no longer work.
What changed
The National Archives of Ireland holds the surviving Irish census records, including the complete 1901 and 1911 returns. In early 2025 the Archives changed the way those records are searched and browsed, and with it the format of the web addresses that point to individual records. The Archives have confirmed that links created before the change will no longer work. For genealogists who have spent years carefully citing their sources, that is a real problem.
The one-click fix
Our free Census Link Converter solves it. Paste an old National Archives census link, click Convert, and it returns the equivalent link in the new 2025 format — ready to copy, or to open directly in a new tab.
The Census Link Converter updates old National Archives links to the new 2025 format.
A note on household records
There is one wrinkle worth understanding. In the new format it is no longer possible to link directly to a specific household return. The converter handles this gracefully: if the link you paste points to a household return, it finds the Head of Family for that household and links to that person instead. From there you can simply select the Household tab to see every other member of the household — so you lose nothing, you just arrive one click away from where you used to land.
Years of carefully saved census citations don’t have to become dead links.
Irish Roots
Tidy up your research
If you keep a research log or a shared family tree, it is worth running your saved census links through the converter and updating them now, before the old format fades from memory entirely. A few minutes of housekeeping today will save a lot of frustration later — for you and for anyone you share your research with.