In search of the Old Age Pension records - Part Three

I’m sorry to report that my search is not going well. I do have an idea of what we are looking for and have a greater understanding of how the process worked, but I also have also seen documentation that leads us to believe that valuable information was systematically destroyed.

Let’s start with the positive

With kind permission of the NRS here is an example of the form used to claim your old age pension from when the system commenced in 1909.

Click images to see detail

Considering that civil registration didn’t begin in Scotland until 1855 and that many of the pre-1855 parish registers have been lost, damaged etc. the information that must have been filled in on the forms above could have been really useful. This would especially have been the case in situations where a family member appears to have moved from one area of the country to another or has a common surname. The date and place of birth called for on this form could unlock many family histories.

These form were to be given to the postmaster who was to pass them on to a representative of HM Customs and Excise. This is a governmental department which has been subject to various changes over the years, making it difficult to trace what may have happened to specific records.

As I have discussed in previous blogs, when no proof of age could be presented by a Scottish claimant, a search could be made in the census or marriage records. It seems at first this was done by the GRO themselves; later (and no later than 1919) the searches were made by officials of the Customs and Excise.

We have again found sample forms: notice that they are perforated. It would appear that one part was kept by the Customs and Excise Department in Edinburgh whilst the other half was sent on to approve (or disallow) payment of the pension.

Where did these forms go?

Reading a file (GRO5/1250) in the NRS on Friday, worryingly called “Destruction of Documents”, I read that many records were systematically destroyed. The reason for much of this destruction was a paper shortage during (and after) the First World War. In fact across governmental departments documents not considered to be of “sufficient public value to justify preservation” were to be destroyed. It’s not looking good...

UPDATE: A followup blog

More collections go online - Scottish Marriages and Deaths

We have added two more collections to our online indexes: marriages/banns and deaths/burials.

As with our online birth/baptism search which we announced earlier this week you can now search all the entries in our pre-existing indexes in book form plus some new ones not available before. All of these are indexes of pre-1855 records that for some reason do not appear in the Church of Scotland Old Parish Records, or OPRs. This means when you search scotlandspeople.go.uk these records do not show up.

How does it work?

Deaths/Burials:

You can search by Forename, Surname, Year of Death, County of Death, Parish of Death, or a combination of the above. As with searching the census, less is often more. Perhaps the person didn’t die when you expect or not in the location you expect. Married or widowed females are often recorded only under their maiden surname and first names and surnames appear under an amazing variety of spellings.

Here’s how the search page looks:

Marriages:

When you search for a marriage you can search by either the Groom’s Name, the Bride’s Name or both. The results show:

 “Groom’s Name”, “Bride’s Name”, “Year” and “Register”.

Remember that the register and place of residence are not necessarily the same thing. With this in mind, we have also indexed by parish of marriage (or most likely parish of marriage), which at times may be different from the parish name on the register. If people attended a non-Church of Scotland Church they may have travelled across parish boundaries to be married by the minister of their choice. Also if the couple were from different parishes the banns would have been read out in both. Not all registers specify where the marriage took place, in these cases we have indexed the parish as the parish the register was kept in.

The full entries of the birth, marriage or death costs just £1.50 and you can pay through PayPal.

Remember you can also search our other indexes online, here’s a list of all our indexes:

Parish Register Births

Parish Register Marriages

Parish Register Deaths

Prison Registers

Sheriff Court Paternity cases

1841, 1851 and 1861 Census

Search on-line today 

www.maxwellancestry.com

Maxwell Ancestry, a member of the Scottish Genealogy Network

List of parishes in our new baptism search

Here is a list of what is contained in our new birth/baptism search as of today:

Dumfriesshire

Ecclefechan Free Church 1843-1848
Applegarth Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs) 1694-1703, 1703-1719, 1763, 1765-1766
Closeburn Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs) 1726-1754
Dumfries, Buccleuch Street United Presbyterian Church 1846-1856

Wigtownshire

Newton Stewart Relief Church 1791-1845

The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright

Glenkens Free Church 1841-1857

Roxburghshire

Jedburgh Associate Church 1737-50 (more to follow)
Hawick East Bank Associate Church 1805-1806 (more to follow)
Hawick Free Church 1843-1846 (more to follow)
Castleton Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs) 1707-1710
Kelso Relief Church 1813-1819
Yetholm Burgher Church (New Light or New Licht) 1824-1855

Selkirkshire

Galashiels Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs) 1666-1690, 1693-1718, 1729
Galashiels Relief Church (later the United Presbyterian Church) 1838-1855

Berwickshire

Bunkle and Preston Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs) 1684-1690
Eyemouth United Secession Church 1841-1861

Search on-line today 

www.maxwellancestry.com

Maxwell Ancestry, a member of the Scottish Genealogy Network

Kelso Relief Church Baptisms 1813-1819 - £6.99

This book contains baptisms found in the volumes of the Kirk Session records of the Relief Church Congregation of Kelso, Roxburghshire, for the period 1813-1819. These records are held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

These entries are separate from and supplement the Church of Scotland Old Parish Registers kept by the General Register Office (Scotland) at New Register House in Edinburgh, and it is believed they have not been transcribed or indexed before. Many entries in this register are not to be found in the Old Parish Registers.

We have included all the baptism entries from the register that survive. A later, or “new” register is referred to on the last page of this register, but its present whereabouts, if it has survived, is unknown.

Buy your copy now!