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  • A Workhouse question

    While going through the workhouse records I came across a few of my nan in the Mile End one ,with 3 of her children, what I dont understand is in one she is admitted 5 Nov 1909 and discharged 6 Nov 1909 ,
    in another she is admitted 29 Mar 1910 and discharged 1 Apr 1910, why such a short time period .
    Am going out soon but back later for any replies thanks.
    Last edited by Guest; 19-10-15, 14:34.

  • #2
    Hi Val,

    These places were not prisons, so you were not there for any set length of time. You could leave at any time after handing back the uniform they made you wear. In the case of one of my relatives, he couldn't afford to feed his wife and himself in his older age, so went to a Workhouse. When his married children found out about it they got him to come and live with one of them.

    They were pretty severe places, and if you were admitted as a family, you were immediately seperated and put into different wings, men in one women in another and any childred in yet another.

    Arthur

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    • #3
      Sometimes they were just a hospital for the sick too so she may have just needed medical attention overnight.
      Most of our older hospitals were once workhouses.

      Edna

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      • #4
        They were known as 'casuals'. Vagrants, homeless and those with nowhere to stay that night were admitted just for the night. Have a read of some of the references on Google Books.
        Phil
        historyhouse.co.uk
        Essex - family and local history.

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        • #5
          thanks everyone thought it strange all 4 of them were in for one day? by her name on one record it says destitute so I assumed that meant she had nowhere to go.

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          • #6
            One of my great aunts and her husband were frequently admitted and then discharged themselves after a day or two. I believe they went to the workhouse when desperate but lived in hope that they would find casual employment and lodgings or friends /relatives to put them up as they dreaded the stgma of being in the workhouse and the likelihood that the children would be separated from them.
            Judith passed away in October 2018

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            • #7
              Hi Judith I did notice it said they were to have breakfast before leaving ,so maybe it was hunger drove them there.

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              • #8
                Whilst workhouses have a bad reputation - at least they were there to give food, shelter and medical care when necessary - the alternative was starving to death.



                Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,

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                • #9
                  yes your right I did forget that side of it

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