1901/11 irish census - Ages not right

[muffin74]

Hi
thanks so much for your reply
In relation to my quote  "its just that records i have are not the right ones that all."
A friend done a look up for me in carlow bagnalstown in parish records
in relation to ellen dwyer and patrick dwyer and the info I received from them was that

Patrick Dwyer died in Ballymoon (carlow) 21st Nov 1906 aged 81 years
and his wife Ellen died 10th June 1906 aged 73 years

yet the census of 1901 have them as follows with their daughter (Ellen Dwyer her details are correct)
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Carlow/Bagenalstown_Rural/Kilcarrig__part_of_rural_/1038590/

The age is so far out with the father Patrick Dwyer

Many thanks
genseacher

I have quite a few similar examples in my tree with age discrepancies of up to 10 years and more, one other point to remember is that when an elderly person died especially if their husband/wife had passed away before them it is unlikely that the next of kin registering the death knew exactly what age they were and probably made a 'best guess'

[kingskerswell]

Hi,
    I have just been looking at the census information for a family in Co.Londonderry where a well-to-do lady's age went fron 39 in 1901 to 61 in 1911. The ages were clearly written in Form A.

Regards

[hallmark]

Am looking forward to filling in my census return next year... think I'll shave a few years off. Not too many, just 20 or so. 

Maybe add these 20 onto my son so he can "prove" his age for his pension in the future!

[Gortinanima]

As a general rule in the 1901 census you will see ages 'rounded up' to the nearest ten so there are a disproportionate number of people aged 40, 50, 60 etc, probably because people just did not know their age.

However, in 1911 Old Age Pensions were introduced for those aged 70 and over and as a result this encouraged people to re-consider their age and this explains a lot of the discrepancies between ages in the two censuses.

[Gortinanima]

I meant to say that penions were introduced with the People's Budget of 1909 under the Liberal government for those over 70 years old but it was means tested. Those who applied often asked for a search of the 1841 and 1851 censuses that were held in the Public Record Office in Dublin. Some applicants provided evidence from local church records that is baptismal details and sometimes from places of work eg. army/civil service. Members of the Church of Ireland could also apply for a search of their church registers that were held in the PRO from the 1870s when the Church was dis-established and their registers before that date were considered to be public records.

Of course when the 1911 census was taken it provided an opportunity for older people near pension age to add a year or two especially as many would not have had a clue what year they were born in. Many people could date their age approximately if they knew that they were born before or after the night of the big wind [1839].

[genseacher]

Gortinanima
you are so right about those who applied for pensions. I just done some surfing today and found that the people who asked for a search of the 1841 and 1851 census are held in the national archives so the records are there hopefully -
regards genseacher