What is this Census Entry All About?

[notaninch]

Hello

I have an unusual census entry. First that it is 1841 or 1851, as not much of it survived.

The other aspect or query from my perspective is that a young boy Edmund as the applicant appears to be seeking information about his family. I presume the Priest is the person he is seeking the information from. Has anyone seem a similar type of record and can they shed more light on it, please. My initial hunch is he is orphaned but that is speculation.

[ShaunJ]

It's to do with proving Edmund's age in 1917 (when he was aged about 80) for the purposes of the Old Age Pension. The government used these forms to search the 1841 & 1851 Census to prove the age of people applying for the Pension. Birth certificates did not exist because applicants at that time were born before Civil Registration had begun.

Looks like they found a possible family in Waterford in 1841.

The priest's address must be the correspondence address that Edmund is using for his application.

[hallmark]

It is all on the first page before you do a Search!!

http://censussearchforms.nationalarchives.ie/search/cs/home.jsp

[notaninch]

It is all on the first page before you do a Search!!

http://censussearchforms.nationalarchives.ie/search/cs/home.jsp

Yes it is to do with his pension as you say. I picked the record up from Ancestry. There was no clue on their site as to what it was about but as you say on the NA site the explanation is there.

Job done thank you so much......The bonus is it gives me his siblings and parents....

[Sinann]

Better to use the free Irish sites than rely on Ancestry
http://www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie/

granted servers could go down today due to the storm

[KGarrad]

Ancestry, to be fair, does say:

This Collection
This data is published by The National Archives of Ireland.

You can often find additional information by visiting the source website, including references, publication information, comments, historical context, and even images.

But I do so agree
Use the free Irish sites for Ireland data - far, far better than Ancestry or FindMyPast.