Hi Barb
Gadget PM'd me. as she said, I haven't been on site for a few days.
By coincidence I was at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow looking up a Poor law record of a relative !?
There's a poignancy about your quest since Emery shares a surname with me.
Gadget is correct in her comment that Scots Poor Law was different from some other places.
It was the responsibility of a parish to care for their own poor, aged and infirm but , unlike England, they preferred to keep people out of an institution by helping their relatives to support them. It was only if the relatives were unable to accommodate them that they were brought in at all. Or if they had no relatives and friends to support them.
Some of the Poor Law records are surprisingly detailed especially if the person was not from that parish but still needed support. The Parish council would contact the person's parish of origin and try to get them to offset or cover the costs.
Even earlier than 1800's a parish might order someone who was capable of working to support themselves to leave the parish. (This could be taken as a forerunner of Assisted Passage since they might give them something to enable them to travel!)
An infant who had been orphaned would probably be handed over to a foster mother to be raised. She would be given financial recompense for her willingness. The cash offered would seem absurdly small by todays reckoning.
Some orphans were simply accepted into the family as one of their own. Others would be sent out into the world as soon as they were able to work to support themselves.There was no law on adoption back then. that is a recent innovation.
Others might be taken into the Poor Law institution as soon as they were able to do some productive work there until they were able to fend for themselves.
The whole Poor Law process was an expensive drain on the finances of a parish because , of course, there was no government support back then.
Back to Emery. The suggestions you have had are really the only way to dig and dig until some other smidgin of a clue comes up. I wondered if you had tried Amory as a fore name.
The surname Young pops up in too many places to be very useful since its derived usually from a T name. In Scotland there was a small pool of names and many places discriminated between one John Smith and another by calling one Young John in much the same way as in Wales we find Dai the Post and Dai the baker.
Sorry for the lengthy history lesson but, as Gadget says, Scots history is long and complicated.
Sorry too that I can't add anything as yet to the constructive comments you have had already.
Russell
