Poor Relief records.....

[Kathy]

My research in Scotland eventually leads back to "born in Ireland", it has been suggested on the Ireland Forum, that if they had applied for Poor Relief in Scotland, there is possibly a record, which may contain there Irish birth county.

Before I beg for a lookup, would I need to know a year, or are the records in some sort of alpha order? How hard is it to search these records? are they also on SP, or only at the library for personal viewing?

Kathy

[DavidWW]

The Act introducing this form of Poor Relief was in 1845,

Many records still exist from then up until whatever the archive involved consider a suitable closure period, often 100, sometimes 75 years.

All the useful, known extant records that I'm aware of in the West of Scotland have been indexed, often with the assistance of local FHSs.........

I write "known" as I'm sure that there are still some records out there waiting to be discovered in the remote part of a dark basement, - as happened not so long ago with the Catrine records.

I also write "useful" as what we genealogists need are the often wonderfully detailed inspectors' reports following the application for relief, - in Glasgow in particular a mini-biography

Some years ago I set out to list all extant such material in Scotland, but sadly had to give up when the reply from so many archives/libraries was along the lines of "We know that our holdings contain some poor relief material, but aren't sure of the exact nature of the material. Why don't you pay us a visit to find out" , as I didn't have the required time.

There's no point in directing someone to Auchenshuggle Library if all that they hold is the minutes of the Board, unless of course your ancestor was so notorious that their antics came up at the Board meeting.

Now there's a thought k k given the expertise that there is on TS is there a volunteer out there for listing at least the known extant Poor Relief records in the West of Scotland?........

David

[Rab]

I don't know if this is of any help. I ran a search through the LDS catalog for Poor Relief in Scotland and 47 matches were returned. These give the location, year range, number of films and from what I have seen whether they are indexed too.

If it's of any help the results can be found here

[DavidWW]

I don't know if this is of any help. I ran a search through the LDS catalog for Poor Relief in Scotland and 47 matches were returned. These give the location, year range, number of films and from what I have seen whether they are indexed too.

If it's of any help the results can be found here

Rab

Good thinking

The link which may not be fully obvious in Rab's post is http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library ... f+scotland

Orraverybest

David

[nelmit]

From Rab's link stating what was on film - Glasgow Poor Law D-HEW 10/1/3 to D-HEW 12/8.

Strangely enough I had cause to ask the archivist to check for book 10/4/8 in The Mitchell today as it was given as a reference on another application.
Unfortunately it was missing.
So although the numbers above tell the range of application books not all of them survived.

Annette M

[Kathy]

Thank you all for the replies, and David for the link, unfortunately no records for the district in Renfrewshire that I would need to search.

Kathy

[nelmit]

Thank you all for the replies, and David for the link, unfortunately no records for the district in Renfrewshire that I would need to search.

Kathy

Hello Kathy,

Just noticed it was you who started this thread.

Where and when did your ancestor die?

Annette M

[DavidWW]

Thank you all for the replies, and David for the link, unfortunately no records for the district in Renfrewshire that I would need to search.

Kathy

Kathy

That doesn't mean that there aren't any, - only that the LDS don't have films that are relevant.

David

[Jack]

Hi Kathy,
If you think it might be Paisley, then try contacting Local Studies at the Reference Library.
They hold Poor Relief name indexes, and statements for the area (earliest are 1839), but they all vary greatly on detail, and legibility.
Just give them as much details (names, ages etc) as possible. I've always found the staff very helpful at all times.

http://tinyurl.com/dbpoc

I had to make the link with TinyURL - it was far, far too long otherwise.
(this link to the page mentioned below with the old photie seems to, at times, go the Council Home page,
if it does then select Libraries from "Popular Links" at the right hand side; then select Family History)

Jack
--
ps, the picture at the top of the page shows the County Square with Gilmour St Rly Station on the left;
to the right are the Council Offices, with the Town Jail behind.
The Station survives, but the Cooncil in their "wisdom" demolished the Offices & Jail to make way for a monstrosity in concrete,
(a multi-storey car park and shopping mall).
pps, i'm sure you'll recognise the photie Kathy, it was just to explain to others not fortunate enough to have lived in Paisley...
--

[Kathy]

Most of my ancesters seems to be in the Port Glasgow/Greenock areas of Renfrewshire, so I think it would be best to try the Watt Library in Greenock, and ask if they have any records, it's worth a try.

Thanks for the link to the Paisley Library Jack, yes, I was born in Moss Vale, Paisley, but we came to Australia, when I was a young child, so my memory of Paisley is not too clear, and the relations in that area originate from County Cavan in Ireland, I have applied to the Cavan Genealogical Centre at the cost of 90 euro per couple, when I received my receipt, attached was a note to say they are currently working on enquiries received back in January 2005, it will probably be this time next year before I hear back from them.

Just as a matter of interest, as I have been doing so much research in Renfrewshire in particular The Port & Greenock, my interest grew to the extent that I transcribed the 1851 Port Glasgow 1,2 census for freecen, which I found really interesting, and as the website is looking for transcriber volunteers, or checkers with transcriber experience, is there anyone out there with some free time?

Kathy