Kenneth Allan at the Finlay Grant gallery in Melrose

Kenneth Allan, Scottish Borders artist, has a solo exhibition at the Finlay Grant gallery in Melrose until the end of November.

Hawick Town Hall in Winter 

The artist himself will be available on the following dates:

Wed Nov 6th                        10am - noon
Fri Nov 8th                           10am - 5pm
Sat Nov 9th                          11:30am - 5pm
Sun Nov 10th                       2pm - 4pm
Wed Nov 13th                      10am - 5pm
Fri Nov 15th                         10am - 5pm
Sat Nov 16th                        11:30am - 5pm
Sun Nov 17th                       2pm - 4pm

Kenneth was born in Peebles, brought up in Innerleithen and now live in Hawick in the Scottish Borders. He says: "I have a passion for the scenery of Scotland, especially the Borders. I like walking in the hills, exploring old ruined tower houses and abandoned shepherd s cottages. In my paintings I try to capture the atmosphere, memories, and romance of this area which is rich in history and beautiful scenery."

Go and see his paintings for yourself at the Finlay Grant Gallery or see his website for more gallery dates.

www.kennethallan.co.uk

Excerpt from the National Records of Scotland

I am reading minutes relating to the administration the the Old Age Pension. National Records of Scotland reference GRO5/779.

Under the subject of the Census being returned to Scotland The Registrar General said (as recorded in the minutes) in November 1909:

"Transmits files as to this matter is strongly of the opinion that a case has been established for access being given to the Census Returns and further thinks that Scottish Census Returns for 1841 & 1851 now crumbling to pieces in London, should be transferred to Scotland & housed in the Register House as soon as possible."

To read more about the Old Age Pension read my blog: In search of the Old Age Pension records - Part One

In search of the Old Age Pension records - Part One

It was brought to my attention recently that in Ireland there survive records of 'Age Verification' which drew on the 1841 and 1851 census to prove an individual's age so that they could claim their Old Age Pension.

The Old Age Pension was introduced throughout the United Kingdom (which then included what is now the Republic of Ireland) in January 1909. In order to claim, you had to be 70 years of age or older and you would have to prove you were old enough.

In Scotland and Ireland it could be very difficult to prove your age. In Ireland civil registration of births had not begun until 1864 so nobody of pension age in 1909, who had been born in Ireland, had a birth certificate. Although civil registration of births had began nine years earlier in Scotland it still meant that none of the first applicants for the Old Age Pension had a birth certificate.

What was to be done?

First of all a search could be made in parish records. Sometimes a baptism could be found, but in a number of cases (as you will know if you have ever searched for these) nothing could be found. It was decided that in Ireland and Scotland searches could be made in the 1841 and 1851 census to verify ages.

Ireland

This is a very valuable resource in Ireland as in the years that followed most of the 1841 and 1851 census enumeration books were destroyed. The remaining Age Verification forms are a really valuable resource. To read more about this see Chris Paton's excellent blog: Walking in eternity.

Scotland

In Scotland I cannot find these age verification forms. I have been able to demonstrate (contrary to the belief of some) that they did exist in Scotland and I also have some statistics. Here is an extract from a file held by the National Records of Scotland (their reference is GRO5/778):

STATEMENT showing NO. of SEARCHES in CENSUS RETURNS of 1841 and of 1851 on behalf of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD in each month from January 1911 to February 1912.

In the same file (GRO5/778) there is also a copy of a question raised by Captain Murray in the House of Commons on 7 August 1912. The question was: “To ask the Secretary for Scotland, whether he can state the number of persons in Scotland who were in receipt of old age pensions on 1st January 1909, 1st January 1910, 1st January 1911, and 1st January 1912.”

The reply by Mr. Masterman. - “There are no records to show the number of old age pensioners on the 1st January in any year except 1909; but the following figures represent the number of persons who were in receipt of old age pensions in Scotland on 1st January 1909, 1910, 1911, and 1912.

On 1st January 1909 64,770
On Friday immediately preceding 1st January 1910 76,037
On Friday immediately preceding 1st January 1911 80,502
On Friday immediately preceding 1st January 1912 94,243”

If the Scottish Age Verification forms could be found they would be really interesting. Whilst they concern a small percentage of the population, it is the percentage of the population that were struggling during their lifetime, to provide proof of their their age. If you are now tracing your family tree just think how useful it would be to have a record from 1909 for these individuals!!

If you have any insight into what has happened to these forms please get in touch.

England and Wales

Civil registration beginning in England and Wales in 1837 meant that some pensioners had birth certificates, but also the parish registers for the period immediately before 1837 are in much better order than in Scotland and Ireland. It therefore seems that the census was not often (if ever) used for the purposes of age verification.

Original Application forms

The Age verification forms should not be confused with the original pension application forms, which every claimant would have filled in right at the start of the process, regardless of whether they had evidence of their age or not. They would be interesting to find too and will be the subject of another blog.

UPDATE: Read part two

Sale on at Maxwell Ancestry

It’s getting cold outside! The nights are fair drawing in. Time to curl up with your laptop or iPad and get back to your family tree, perhaps work on some of those brick walls.

To help you we are having a sale! I know, I know, we are just too good to you.

As an introductory offer we are reducing the cost of our new paternity case transcriptions from £10 to just £5! We are also offering a discount on multiple orders. If you want 4 cases we will charge just £15 for all 4! Where can you get a better deal than that?

How to order

If you are ordering 1-3 just order as normal through the website, the reduced cost will be shown in the PayPal shopping cart.

If you want to take advantage of our multiple purchase discount price email me directly and I will send you a combined PayPal invoice for the special rate.

Search on-line today 

www.maxwellancestry.com

Maxwell Ancestry, a member of the Scottish Genealogy Network

Help pages added to our website

Over the last few weeks we have been busy adding various indexes to our website. We have now also added some guides and some details about what sources are in our index.

We have a guide for each resource:

Prison Index Guide

Non-OPR Parish Records Index Guide

Sheriff Court Paternity Cases Index Guide

Early Census and Population Lists Guide

1841-1861 Census Indexes Guide

If you come up with a question whilst searching please email me and I will do my best to answer it and add  it to my list to help other searchers.

Search on-line today 

www.maxwellancestry.com

Maxwell Ancestry, a member of the Scottish Genealogy Network

Births, Marriages and Deaths covered in our new online search

We announced yesterday our new online index. Here is what you can search so far:

Berwickshire

Bunkle and Preston Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Baptisms 1684-1690; Marriages 1684-1690.

Chirnside Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Burials 1817-1854.

Eyemouth United Secession Church: Births 1841-1854, 1856 (one entry), 1861 (one entry); Marriages 1843 (one entry), 1850 (two entries).

Lauder Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Burials 1827-1838, also nine deaths 1785-1825.

Dumfriesshire

Applegarth Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Baptisms 1694-1719, also nine entries from 1765-1766; Marriages 1694-1712, one entry from 1763; Mortcloth payments 1704-1715.

Closeburn (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Baptisms 1726-1754; Marriages 1726-1742, 1748-1753; Burials 1737-1741, 1748-1753.

Dumfries, Buccleuch Street United Presbyterian Church: Births 1846-1856.

Ecclefechan Free Church: Baptisms 1843-1848.

Tinwald (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Banns and Marriages 1832-1854.

Westerkirk (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Irregular Marriages 1768-1824 (35 entries for fines paid); Mortcloth payments 1706-1719, 1768-1805; Burials 1805-1854; Deaths 1842-1854.

Kirkcudbrightshire

Glenkens Free Church: Baptisms 1841-1857

Peeblesshire

West Linton Associate Church: Baptisms 1748-1753, 1815-1832; Marriages 1812-1826; Burials 1812-1817.

Roxburghshire

Castleton (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Baptisms 1707-1710 (and a few births inferred from Kirk Session minutes); Marriages 1707-1710; Proclamation fees 1767-1770, 1834 (13 entries); Mortcloth payments 1767-1770 (25 entries).

Hawick East Bank Associate Church: Births 1805-1806; Marriages 1805-1806; Deaths 1805-1806 (register not yet fully transcribed).

Hawick Free Church: Births 1843-1846 (register not yet fully transcribed).

Jedburgh Associate Church: Baptisms 1737-1750 (register not yet fully transcribed).

Kelso Relief Church: Births and Baptisms 1813-1819.

Yetholm Burgher Church (New Light or New Licht): Births 1824-1855; Banns 1830-1852; Deaths 1819-1844 (4 entries).

Selkirkshire

Galashiels Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Baptisms 1666-1671 (three entries), 1672-1690, 1693-1718, 1729 (one entry); Proclamations and Marriages 1672-1683, 1686-1689, 1719 (one entry), 1845-1854; Mortcloth payments 1673-1683.

Galashiels Relief Church: Births and Baptisms 1838-1859.

Selkirk Kirk Session (Church of Scotland but not in the OPRs): Mortcloth payments 1707-1711 (register not yet fully transcribed).

Selkirk United Presbyterian Church: Marriages 1850 (only four entries).

Wigtownshire

Newton Stewart Relief Church: Births 1791-1844; Marriages 1807 (one entry); Deaths 1812-1816 (three entries).

Search on-line today 

www.maxwellancestry.com

Maxwell Ancestry, a member of the Scottish Genealogy Network

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