Genealogy Chat

Would a family of 3, mother, father & daughter have been put into 3 different workhouses? Naomi

Don't know , but they would be split in the workhouse as women were kept apart from men in seperate buildings or units, soI suppose yes its possible. it is also possible for 1 member of a family to go into a workhouse if say they were ill, as there was no nhs in those days! tRY www.workhouses.org.uk for more info KIM

Yes Naomi, the workhouse authorities didn't seem too bothered about splitting families - I have a great Uncle in St Mary Islinton workhouse in 1901, his two sons in two separate workhouse schools/boys' homes, and I still can't find his wife (so if anyone ever comes across Frances Florence Dauernheim........) Good hunting Judith

Thanks Kim and Judith. Looks like this has happened with mine then. Naomi

Hi Kim As you seem to know a bit about workhouses I wonder if you can help me. It looks as if my great great grandfather may have died in 1884, in the Union Workhouse at Withington in Lancs, but his wife and three children were living in Notts, with his mother-in-law. I wonder if you had any ideas why they were in different counties. I thought maybe you could only go into a workhouse in the area where you were born. I am trying to find his birth place so am desperately looking for clues. Jean in Somerset

Well I am no expert but I think that yes the parish you were born in was responsible for your upkeep if you fell ill or on hard times. There was parish relief available but only in your original town or union which was acombination of towns/villages, hence the term eg "bideford union workhouse " it covered more than one village. I think that is why some families ended up in different places . If you google parish relief or workhouse history there are probably better explanations than mine. I have a ancestor born in a workhouse to a single mother and then she went on to be a servant and the child was brought up by someone receiving parish relief and he was known as a "pauper child" i think it was a bit like fostering., but much more primitive. KIM

Try http://dspace.dial.pipex(.)com/town/terrace/adw03/peel/pltopic.htmy for lotts of info on poorlaws. KIM REMOVE BRACKETS FROM ADDRESS!

Hi Kim and Sheila Only just spotted your replies so many thanks for your tips and suggestions. I will try and e-mail the Principal Archivist at the Manchester Library if I can make out his e-mail address. I presume you mean the Manchester City Library. I had been looking for my great grandfather in Notts as that is where he was married in 1872 and also in Leics as that is where his wife came from. So Lancs could be a new area for me to look. Unfortunately he has a fairly common name - Henry Marsh and there are at least 27 born around the right time 1851-53. Jean

Yes I think that they were used like hospitals, don't forget people were scared of tb to catch it so they probably would be isolated from their families. My Grt Grt grandfather died in the workhouse of brain disease, probably senility as perhapsy his wife could not look after him. She was still living nearby so I think they could be like hospitals , after all most people could not afford to pay for treatments.

Naomi, Just out of interest, I did not realise until recently that my G Grandmother died in the workhouse but in 1925. I had no idea that workhouses were still in existence then. Then my mother tells me that the workhouse was still open when she began going to school. Could they have been the forerunner of the mental institution, bearing in mind treatment for mental disorders was horrendous. Sandra