Thank you for sending us your latest 'Ask the Expert' genealogy questions. Simon Fowler, has answered your questions on workhouses and The Poor Law.
Simon Fowler is editor of Ancestors Magazine and an experienced writer and lecturer. He has published a large number of books including 'Tracing Your Army Ancestors' (Pen & Sword), 'Tracing Your Second World War Ancestors' (Countryside Books) and, with Ruth Paley, 'Family Skeletons' (The National Archives). His latest book 'Workhouse: the people, the places, life behind closed doors', has recently been published by The National Archives to critical acclaim.
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Q. I have been trying to find my ancestor Richard Joseph Radburn (1851-1906), a sculptor who was admitted to Kingston Union Workhouse, between 1891 and 1901; he died in the Infirmary there in 1906.
I have looked at the workhouse records in Surrey History Centre but none survive for these dates. Is there anywhere I could look to find out why he was admitted? The family was split up on his admission and his wife and daughters were taken into service.
A. The New Poor Law was as bureaucratic as today’s NHS, a fact which was much resented by workhouse staff who had to complete the forms and registers, many of which duplicated each other. This means that if one set of records is missing, as here the admission and discharge records, the chances are that other records survive. In this case it is worth checking the guardian’s minute books to see whether his admission is noted. Another source might be the local papers, which might include a short biography of a pauper with an unusual occupation.
Q. The 1881 census lists an ancestor of mine living at the Kensington Workhouse in Marloes Road. Can you tell me where I can see the records?
A. The excellent workhouses website www.workhouses.org.uk gives a brief history of the Marloes Road workhouse, part of which still exists as flats. Full records for the Kensington Union are with the London Metropolitan Archives, which have lists of paupers and guardians' minute books, although the admission and discharge registers have long since been lost.
Q.I have found my great great grandmother and her seven children (including my great grandfather) in the workhouse at Heckingham, Norfolk. There is no sign of her husband: she is described as the head of the household but as married. I cannot find any trace of her before then, other than the births of the older children in the 1860s. Will workhouse records, if they exist, give information or clues to where the family were before the workhouse and who she was married to?
A. Heckingham Workhouse was run by the Loddon and Clavering Poor Law Union, the records of which are at the Norfolk Record Office. Admission and discharge books may well provide some of the information you are looking for. Another source are the minutes of the Assessment Committee which would have considered applications for admission to the workhouse or the payment of pension or other forms of assistance. It is likely, however, that her husband had deserted her long before she arrived at the workhouse and possible that the children had various different fathers.
Q. I have a 1901 census return for Alice (age 13) and Thomas Walker (age 11), which states they were in the Manchester Poor Law Schools at Barton-upon-Irwell. They went to a workhouse at about this time when their mother died, but I don't know if these are the right children.
They also had a younger sister Ruth. She may be the Ruth Walker at Devonshire Street Girl's Home in Manchester in the 1901 census. Was it usual to send siblings to different institutions?
A. By the 1890s great efforts were made to keep children out of the workhouse, where it was feared that they would be corrupted by the older residents. Families would be split up and neither the children nor the parents might necessarily know where each member was sent. The lucky ones might be fostered out or live in small homes supervised by house parents. Some, however, would be sent to large boarding schools at places such as the one at Barton-upon-Irwell. By 1900 conditions at these places had improved, but they were still soulless and impersonal. There were also a range of charity orphanages and schools, of varying degrees of compassion. It is difficult to find information about these places, but some records for the Barton poor law union are with the Lancashire Record Office in Preston.
Q. My relative has the following death certificate: Sarah Casey - death on 20 February 1909 ,age 70, the widow of Peter Casey, a labourer of 63 Whiterock St, Everton. Died at workhouse. Informant: P Casey, son, 63 Whiterock St, Everton.
How can I find if she was an inmate of the workhouse or just happened to be there when she died? and which workhouse was it?
A. Everton was a constituent part of the West Derby Poor Law Union, which was the most populous in the country after West Ham. The workhouse was at Walton (and formed part of Walton Hospital until its closure in the late 1990s). Unfortunately, few records appear to survive but those that do are at the Liverpool City Record Office.
Q. My great aunt, Alice Guerin, was born in Southampton in 1896, four months after the death of her father. Her mother returned to London with her six children, where several of them went to live with her sisters. Alice appears in the 1901 Census in the Alverstoke House of Industry. I have learned that it was often a condition of “outdoor relief” for a widow to put at least one of her children in the workhouse. Is there any way I can find out what happened to her?
A. Records for the workhouse, including report books and minutes, are at the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester. Many poor law unions made widows with three or more small children leave one or two of them in the workhouse as a condition of receiving outdoor relief, that is to say a small pension or temporary grant. The argument was that these mothers would quickly find work in order to be reunited with their children and, of course, being relieved of a couple of small mouths to feed would also help the family.
