You might notice another listing at the National Archives…Census Search Forms 1841-1851. (These records are also available at FindMyPast and Ancestry.) Since those censuses were destroyed, what is this? When the Old Age Pension Act was introduced in Ireland in 1908, eligibility was set at 70 years old and applicants had to prove their age. To be eligible, a person would have been born before civil registration began in 1864. How could they prove their age? One way was by being identified in either the 1841 or 1851 census which weren't destroyed until 1922. The applicant would complete a form with their name, residence at the time of the census, their approximate age, and parents’ names. The request was sent to the Public Records Office for research. I came across the form at the top of the page for my great grandmother’s brother Henry MackayMackey. I didn’t know what had happened to him and he popped up in a search. I know it’s the correct person based of the location and names of his parents. Notice on the line “Return searched by” is NF or not found. Of course he wasn’t found…the search was in the 1851 census and he wasn’t born until 1867! But I found out that in 1916 he lived in Belfast, was married to Letitia, and with that information was able to find his marriage record, and both Henry and Letitia's death records. I collected all of the records and filed them. When I looked at them again recently and put them in a Timeline, I realized that Henry died in a hospital in Dublin on 18 October 1916 when his wife, Letitia applied for a pension for him. The form was received on 17 October 1916. Interesting what you might find by using a Timeline.