Most people listed in the source I am about to describe were born in either the United Kingdom, Germany or Scandinavia. A few were born in other parts of the world. All of them eventually ended up in Queensland, Australia. I considered posting this in my Queensland or UK / Australia blogs, but I decided that Genealogy Leftovers was more appropriate. (My decision to have several locality-specific blogs is not looking so clever now.)
Queensland State Archives hold records of applicants for the old age pension 1908-1909. They give information about people who received the pension plus hundreds whose applications were rejected. Although they had to be aged at least sixty-five (that is, born before about 1843-1844) to receive a pension, many applicants were younger. Most rejections were on the basis of age, period of residence or annual income. Some other reasons provide a clue to the applicant's character.
In 1908-1909 electoral enrolment was not compulsory in Queensland, and old age pension registers give the place of residence of many people who were not on electoral rolls. This includes some applicants who were not British subjects and not naturalised (and thus not eligible to vote) but who applied (though in vain) for a pension.
The vast majority of register entries give the claim date; surname; given name; country or Australian State of birth; alleged age; total number of years in Qld; town or suburb of current residence; whether the application was approved or rejected; if approved, the amount of pension payable, date payment commenced and town where paid; if rejected, the reason for rejection; and sometimes other remarks such as 'sent to Dunwich Benevolent Asylum'. For many residents of Ravenswood and Townsville there are extra details (marital status, spouse's name, full address and exact birth date) in a second register.
My Web site has more advice about pension records and related sources before and after 1908-1909; and it explains why the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 has important implications for family history research.
My index to 9,000 old age pension applicants has been the most popular of all my indexes. I hope it leads you to information about your ancestors or their emigrant relatives.
(From time to time I use my 'Sources Sunday' theme to discuss a non-Internet source such as a specific item or series in a record office, a book, or a library, museum etc as a source in the broader sense. Sometimes 'Sources Sunday' is in one of my other blogs, which are listed in the sidebar.)
What a monumental job indexing 9,000 records!
ReplyDeleteIt was, and yet it was also one of the easiest, because 99% of the handwriting was perfectly legible! An even larger indexing project (I'm still working on it) will be my index to insanity files (7,300 names already and lots more to be added). My most difficult index was the one for Cooktown Hospital admissions. The handwriting was unbelievably dreadful, and the registers were in an appalling condition. In fact, I was only willing to publish the names from that index after I persuaded the Archives to microfilm the registers.
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