Author Topic: Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?  (Read 2997 times)

Offline geraldine96

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Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?
« on: Monday 15 January 18 12:57 GMT (UK) »

I have been checking civil birth records for the Enniscorthy Workhouse using Irish Geneology. All the records I have looked at start from the early 1800s. I have noticed that many of these birth records  only provide the names of the mothers. Can a knowledgeable roots chatter explain why some Workhouse records don't have the father's name and 'the occupier' George Mcguire is always the person listed as 'present at the birth'.
Are these children illegitimate? Usually birth records state 'illegitimate'                                       Are there Catholic parish baptismal records that go with the civil records of Workhouse births?
I have discovered that the entries and departures from Enniscorthy Workhouse are lost and the only paperwork you can read are the 'minutes'. These papers show that Workhouse children were often adopted or fostered by families around Enniscorthy.
Would young adolescent men and female workhouse inmates be sent to work outside of the workhouse walls as cheap labour or were they strictly confined to the Workhouse premises?

I am living in England so all the information I have found regarding Wexford is from the internet, I haven't found any websites that describe 'life' in the Workhouse at Enniscorthy but hope I'll find a Wexford based roots chatter that has all the answers. I believe visitors to Enniscorthy can do tours of the Workhouse - hopefully one day I'll manage to do this. Thankyou for any help, any links to a good website or a book on the Workhouse would also be really appreciated. Geraldine96

Offline hallmark

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Offline hallmark

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Give a man a record and you feed him for a day.
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Offline geraldine96

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Re: Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?
« Reply #3 on: Monday 15 January 18 15:28 GMT (UK) »
thankyou Hallmark, the workhouse description sounds even bleaker than I had imagined. Do you know if families spent the whole of their adult lives in the Workhouse or did they leave the workhouse and have to re- enter due to renewed poverty at a later date?
The extract suggests that people came and went rather than stay in the workhouse for a long time.


Offline hallmark

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Re: Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?
« Reply #4 on: Monday 15 January 18 16:23 GMT (UK) »
The majority would be in and out...
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Offline chinapaddy

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Corri, Holland,
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Offline Sinann

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Re: Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?
« Reply #6 on: Monday 15 January 18 18:36 GMT (UK) »

I have been checking civil birth records for the Enniscorthy Workhouse using Irish Geneology. All the records I have looked at start from the early 1800s. I have noticed that many of these birth records  only provide the names of the mothers. Can a knowledgeable roots chatter explain why some Workhouse records don't have the father's name and 'the occupier' George Mcguire is always the person listed as 'present at the birth'.
Are these children illegitimate? Usually birth records state 'illegitimate'                                       Are there Catholic parish baptismal records that go with the civil records of Workhouse births?

No father's name so take it that they are illegitimate.
Illegitimate isn't usually written on Civil Certs more likely to be on the baptism, although if there are a lot of baptisms from the workhouse the priest might not bother.
It should be possible to find the baptisms on the NLI site if the register survives but the site is down for maintenance today.
https://registers.nli.ie/
George Maguire would have been an employee of the Workhouse, it fairly usual to see one person over and over as informant on Births and Deaths from workhouses and hospitals.

Offline hallmark

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Re: Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?
« Reply #7 on: Monday 15 January 18 19:05 GMT (UK) »


I have been checking civil birth records for the Enniscorthy Workhouse using Irish Geneology. All the records I have looked at start from the early 1800s.   Geraldine96

They can't start early 1800's as Civil Reg for Births only started in 1860's.....
Give a man a record and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to research, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Offline geraldine96

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Re: Births and daily life in the Enniscorthy Workhouse/can anyone help?
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday 16 January 18 06:10 GMT (UK) »
thankyou Hallmark, chinapaddy and Sinann
Re: the civil registers i have been looking at on Irish geneology; I meant the records that have an image, i haven't worked out how to access the records that refer you to volume and page (mostly earlier records).
Sinann, will the 'Ancestry' geneology site have the Catholic Parish Baptism records or do you think the National Library of Ireland is a better source. Geraldine96