Researching the past.....

With reference to the Shirt industry in Derry since the 1850's, I decided to look at the evidence for the vast numbers of women who were purportedly employed within these factories.  I chose to look at the 1911 Census of Ireland which is available online.  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

I found that there were literally thousands of women from the age of 14 employed as , for instance a 'Seamstress', 'Collar Maker', 'Collar Stamper', 'Collar Turner', 'Linen Factory Machinist' 'Shirt Maker' etc and sometimes whole streets had 30 or 40 women all working within this industry.

I obtained a map of the City from 1905 to determine the extent of the factories around the time of the Census.