Census Search Forms 1851

[kiwi2011]

Can someone please tell me what this form was used for? Is the Applicant, the person who's requesting information? Any suggestions on the applicant's address as being Rev Thomas etc. Thank you.

[KatC]

This looks a bit like an application for a pension.  If you look on-line there may be the original which will often lists the children in the household in 1851.  The govt. checked census records to match the applicant to  a household on the census which was not always possible.  I have also seen ministers listed as the applicant's address.  I assume in some cases the applicant could not read or write and asked for the minister's assistance.  He then had the return mail come to him.   

[Elwyn Soutter]

The state pension was introduced in Britain & Ireland in 1909. To be eligible you had to be 70 or older. Proof of age was required. Because birth certificates only started in Ireland in 1864, most applicants there wouldn’t have had one, and so other forms of proof were used. Baptismal certificates and military discharge certs were acceptable but for others, a check was made against either the 1851 or the 1841 census to see what age you were then. This form requests that census information, and gave where the applicants said they were living at the time of the census.  If the applicant was found, the officials usually recorded the whole family, as per the census. In this particular case, Ellen applied in 1915. The officials in Dublin where the census was stored, reported they could not find her in the 1851 census for Kingarve.

The original 1851 census was destroyed in the 1922 fire, but these pension extract forms survived.

[aghadowey]

Not the original record but a bit more detail here-
FITZPATRICK Ellen Daniel FITZPATRICK Martha FITZPATRICK nee MCCANN Ballintaggart Kilmore Oneilland W. Armagh 1915 - Agent, C.C., Portadown. 1851 Parents married 1838, Eleanor aged 10yrs.
http://www.ireland-genealogy.com/view_category/Page-381.html

Ellen Fitzpatrick, parents Daniel Fitzpatrick & Martha McCann, of Ballintaggart, application 1915, agent Catholic Curate Portadown. In 1851 census- parents married 1838 and Eleanor age 10.

I have seen one of the original census extracts given to applicant applying for pension which listed residence (townland), parents' names and year married and names of some of their children (from applicant to eldest child but not children younger than applicant).

[kiwi2011]

Thank you so much to KatC, Elwyn Soutter and aghadowey. You've all given me great information.