Old age pension applications 1841/1851 census

[triathlon]

Can anyone help please. Looking for transcribed (if possible) pension applications for Desertegany region. I know all of Clonmany have been transcribed. Have Desertegnys (Buncrana) also been done ?  Thank you.

[silvery]

Were there old age pensions then?   

[triathlon]

yes started  about 1908 but you had to prove your age , hence 1841/51 census extractions.

Were there old age pensions then?   

[aghadowey]

See here for information on Old Age Pension-
http://www.deliapublications.com/OldAgeP.htm

[Redroger]

So what this means in effect is that people were able to gain access to the census in order to admit their age in a pension application? Is this a possible loophole in an attempt to get later censuses opened up? e.g. 1951 c 2018 etc.

[aghadowey]

No. People didn't get access to the early census records. Remember that you had to be 70 to qualify which means born before 1840 at the start of the system. Since civil registration of births started in 1864 these people had no birth certificates to prove their age so it was decided that the 1841 and 1851 census records would be acceptable proof of age. A claimant's application was checked against the census returns by clerical staff.

[Redroger]

Thanks, but Drat! Looks as though the only routes are amending legislation or bribery!

[silvery]

That's interesting.    It's a thing I never thought about.   

[derrylass]

You will find a transcription (by surname, not by parish) of Donegal census abstracts on Ben Palmer's Moville Resources site.

http://www.movillerecords.com/census_extracts_home.html