Genealogy Chat

Thanks Lizzy, it's another option for me to follow. Thanks again. Regards

cheers judith! i am going to do that today!!! caroline.......i think youll have to do the same as me, and contact the county records office, to see if they hold the information you are looking for!

Apologies for jumping in on this thread...I have a g/grandmother who, according to her birth cert, was born at Chipping Norton Union Workhouse. I have her and the rest of the family on the 1901 census but cannot find either parent or her on the 1891. She was born in February 1891. Does anyone know where I can look at these 'registers' for workhouses? Is there somewhere online or do I need to go to the local Register Office? TIA Caroline

The Essex Records Office has a website : www.essexcc.gov.uk/ero where you can check what they hold. It would be worth looking at that or ringing them as Colchester is not their main records office, and you may find, if the registers have not been filmed, that they are kept at Chelmsford rather than Colchester. Good Hunting Judith

thats a real help , thanx alot!

In the records I was looking at there were many illegitimate children. Also some whose families could not support them. Smallpox victims, and of course the poor. I remember one entry said 'admitted because of exceptionally cold weather for two weeks'. The man I was looking for was 'aged 91 and almost totally blind'. As you read it you did feel there was genuine compassion for those who were admitted. Good luck Let us know how you get on.. alice

thanx for that. mad alice. thats given me a lot more hope!! so ill have to visit colchester records office then!??

Longshot.Try the asylum.A particularly viscious law allowed women to be locked up for moral weakness.

I guess it may be a bit hit and miss.. I have had two experiences of workhouse records. The first time I was really disappointed and very few records had survived. The minute books were there but did not mention the residents at all. The second time I was looking up for someone else and I wished he could be mine! I was looking at the admissions books which were really well kept. It gave dates of admission and why. Birth and deaths and how trhey left the workhouse. i have several of mine in the workhouse and will definitely be taking a look when i can find time to travel to the records office to take a peek! i hope you are lucky with yours Alice

p.s i have considered that the mum died , but after spending weeks trawling deaths, im having 2nd thoughts. the baby came out of the workhouse as a teenager and got a job. thats where she met and married my gt grandad. however, what had happened to her mother,never seems to have been mentioned!

thanx george, it was colchester union workhouse. whats the best way to see workhouse records,please!!

The Guardians minute books are usually in the County Records office, the guardians only mention names in there occasionally, I found my rellie in there because the guardians decided to send her to Canada. You are more likely to find your person in the Workhouse registers Which workhouse is it? Mine was in Middlesbrough Union It could be that the mum died, do you know what became of the child? George

does anyone know anything about guardian minute books?? im trying to trace a woman who had a baby in a workhouse. she had the baby in 1882, but in the 1891 census the childs in the workhouse but the mother is nowhere to be found! i know the mothers name but nothing else about her. i read somewhere about these records, where can i access them and will they be of any use???