Registration districts

[magicspice]

Hi there, if on a census return a registration district is given as " - union" does this indicate the workhouse??

thanks
Magicspice

[J.R.Ellam]

Hi

I would say your assumption is right and the Union referred to on the census would be the workhouse.

John

[LizzieW]

I'm not convinced, I would guess it was a Union of a few small registration districts.  I have the certificates of a couple of ancestors who died in workhouse hospitals (although they probably weren't inmates of the actual workhouse) and the registration district wasn't a Union and an ancestor who definitely was living in a workhouse and the registration district for his death was just Ulverston.

I'm sure you'll get a definitive answer very soon.

Lizzie

[Mort29]

Registration Districts were formed on the same boundaries as the original Poor Law Unions.

[coombs]

I have bmd certs that say "Registration District is Bicester Union etc.

[J.R.Ellam]

I thought it was the census registration district Magicspice was asking about and not the GRO registration district.

If it was the GRO registration district the Workhouse comes under the local district.
But if it is the census you are looking for the heading at the top of the page will say Workhouse or Union.

John

[LizzieW]

I think it would be similar.  For instance this is the 1881 census registration district for The Union Workhouse, Ulverston, Lancashire:

RG11/4279/98/1        
Registration District: Ulverston
Sub District: Ulverston    
Enumeration District:
Ecclesiastical Parish:
Civil Parish: Ulverston
Municipal Borough:
Address:The Union Workhouse, The Gill Ulverston, Ulverston
County: Lancashire

So in this case the registration district for the census is just Ulverston.  Maybe if the workhouse was in a city like Liverpool or Manchester, there might be a census registration district just for the Workhouse.

Lizzie

[Tati]

Hi all 

Maybe we're talking about an enumeration district, rather than a registration district. Can you give the census reference you're looking at, Magicspice? 

[sillgen]

I have a lot of census entries that say Cuckfield Union and they do not mean the workhouse but the area.    A local directory says "The union comprises the following parishes:- Albourne, Ardingly, Balcombe, Bolney, Clayton, Cowfold, Cuckfield, Horsted Keynes, Hurstpierpoint, Keymer, Lindfield, Newtimber, Pyecombe, Slaugham, and Twineham, with a population in 1861 of 17,163, and an area of 59,486 acres."
No doubt many other towns had a similar system.
Andrea