The Old Age Pension Act was introduced in Ireland in 1908. This meant that people over a certain age were guaranteed a pension from the state. However, because the compulsory registration of births had only begun in 1864, claimants of the pension were unable to provide a birth certificate to prove their age. The government therefore found it necessary to establish a person’s age by allowing a search to be made of the 1841 and 1851 census returns.

The claimant of the pension would give the name of the Townland and Parish where he/she was born or resided in at the time of the 1841/51 census and a search would be made of that townland’s census returns.A successful search would show additional information such as the age of applicant at the time of the census, but, in many records the names and ages of every person living in the household is supplied. Some results would show however that no family was found.

The Irish Pension Records for the northern counties of Ireland (including Donegal) are stored on microfilm. They are very difficult to read and are not indexed. Our researchers have worked on these records, transcribing them to compile our database.

At pensear.org you can search all the records we have transcribed. The search is made using the surname you are researching (for more information on how to search read our step-by-step guide). You can decide which records look relevant to your search and purchase only these. At only £1.00 per record we offer great value for money.

There are almost 20,000 records, mainly relating to the northern counties. You can review an extract of surnames in the database here.

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We look forward to helping you with your Irish Research.