The 1841 & 1851 Irish Census Death Information and absent household members

 

My 2nd great-grandfather Patrick Mullen's brother Michael Mullen applied for a pension in April of 1920. He applied before a majority of these census records were lost in the June 1922 fire at the public records office. Unfortunately he didn't get the pension because Pat and Ellen Mullen's children were not listed as living in their household on the 1851 Census. I surmised likely they were visiting local relatives (more on that later). I have seen children staying in the homes of aunts and uncles in the 1901 and 1910 Censuses. 

Something that puzzled me regarding Michael's 1851 census extract is the fact another child of Pat and Ellen is listed as Michael. This child died at age 1 according to this document. I didn't know where this information came from? He died in 1848 according to the extract. I didn't see deaths recorded on the 1851 census form I looked at? 

I emailed the Irish Family History Centre genealogist a question about where this information came from. You can email a question and tune in to their Friday Facebook live stream to get your answer. My question was answered during one of their streams and I found out that there was a separate part of the form that listed deaths that occurred in households over the past 10 years. 

Our family's forms were all lost in the 1922 fire. Forms for some places survived. It's interesting to look at the surviving forms recording deaths. You get an idea of age ranges of death and causes of death in that time period. 

One portion of the form lists members of the household who were alive and absent from the household on the night of the census day, and below that those who were dead. The cause of death was recorded along with the season the death occurred. 

Below you can see ages and causes of death listed. A 52 year old pensioner probably died of an infection that spread from his foot. A 17 year old died of decay? A 2 year old was said to have died of Colic. 

A problem I've run into with my theory that Pat and Ellen's children were staying with family members on census day is the fact they were supposed to be listed on the form as absent . Michael and his brother Patrick were supposed to have been alive in 1851 and should have been listed as absent. They apparently were not listed as absent on that form according the the 1920 census extract form. It's difficult to say exactly when these brothers were born; the surviving documents I've collected don't agree. It's possible they were born after 1851 and they lied about their ages for some reason? According to the records my ancestor Pat Mullen may have been born between 1837 and 1850. With such a wide range of years he could have been born in 1851 even; since the dates are all over the place anything is possible. When my ancestor Pat Mullen married in 1880 his age was given as 30 

According to Pat's death certificate he was 93 years old when he died in 1930.  Dying at an age that advanced would have been unusual for that time period in Ireland. There is longevity in our Mullen family however. His daughter Sr. Mary Kathleen died at age 103. If he were born the year his parents married in 1837 it's possible he was already living away from home in 1851 because child labor was not illegal at the time. That doesn't explain why Michael would have been missing. His tombstone states he was born in 1850. He was younger than Patrick and should have still lived at home. We know the Mullen's had another child named Michael who died in 1848. It would stand to reason that the second Michael would have been born after that. Many of these forms weren't fully filled in so it's possible the census taker failed to ask about absent family members? 

Here is another example of a form with absent household members and deceased household members listed. It was not uncommon for someone to be away from home on census day. 

Correction: I jumped to the wrong conclusion as someone pointed out

I assumed that every person who extracted information from these censuses extracted every name. My Huvane family extract included all of the children not just the applicant. 

Michael Mullen's application says "no return of applicant". So most likely this extractor didn't extract every name. 

The census extract has left me with more questions about when the Mullen children were born and where they were during the census? (Although now we might assume only Michael is missing) With few records surviving the fire and missing church records for the family parish we may never know exactly when the children were born or where they were living on census day 1851.