A huge problem was experienced in people being able to provide proof of their age.
Those eligible, aged seventy or over, were born pre-1839, before Statutory registration of births commenced in 1855,
and in time when registration could depend on whether a child was baptised, the diligence of the local minister in recording the baptism, and if he had remembered,
and whether the registers had survived fire, flood and mice in the intervening years.
Sometimes evidence depended on information contained within family bibles.