Workhouse = Hospital?

[Tsu]

Was the workhouse ever just a hospital?

I have two relatives (husband and wife).  In the 1861 census they were fairly prosperous.  He was a bookkeeper and they had a servant.  Late in 1862 he died in the Union Workhouse in Manchester.

In the 1871 census, the wife is living with five of her children, but within six months of the census, she was also dead, place of death, Union Workhouse, Manchester.

Is it possible that were not paupers and just went in because they were sick?

(I don't mind that they might have been paupers, I'm just at a loss to know what happened to them both.)

[meles]

They tended to be paupers, Tsu. It appears your relatives fell on hard times.

meles

[Tsu]

Do you know whether it's still possible to get death certificates for them?

[silvery]

Yes you should certainly be able to get their death certificates.  Have a look here

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl


Do you know how to order them from the GRO?

[Tsu]

I can't actually find either of them in the BMD listings...

If I give the names, can someone see if they can find them?  I even have dates of death, but their name is somtimes spelled wrong.

John W RONDEAU died 10 Oct 1862 Union Workhouse Manchester

Annie Lydia RONDEAU died 31 July 1871 Union Workhouse Manchester

Thanks

[Tsu]

Just found Annie.  helpfully listed as RONDA....

Still rummaging for John.

[Tsu]

Started thinking outside the box.  Tell me if you think this is possible.

John Rondeau's full name was John Willam Burton Rondeau.  Now, I can't find any trace of his death under any variation of Rondeau, but there is one death of a John Willam Burton within the right time frame, but he died in Blackburn.

What do you reckon?  Could it be him?

[silvery]

Well Blackburn isn't Manchester, but it could be. 
Just out of interest where did you get the dates from?

I will keep looking.

[Tsu]

My sister came up with the date and I've a horrible sinking feeling that they're submitted entries on the familysearch.org site...