Poor House Records

[BJC2020]

We believe my grandfather was a foundling and my research has found entries of him leaving the Norwood School of Industry to work on a farm in Herefordshire at age 10 and then onto the Training Ship Exmouth at age 13 years.  I have much of the information regarding marriage etc but I was hoping to find the record of entry into the poor house and perhaps where he got his name from.

Any help appreciated

[Girl Guide]

Welcome to Rootschat 

You give no dates or name for your grandfather.  I assume he is now deceased?

He seems to have gone from one side of the country to the other, London to Herefordshire.

Below is a link to the Norwood School of Industry.  Is this one that you have already looked at?

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Norwood/

Is he old enough to have been on any census records?  Have you found any birth record for him?

More information from you would assist us to help you. 

[Pennines]

A warm welcome to Rootschat from me also.

It really depends on the date your grandfather was firstly admitted, as often there is a 100 year closure on admission records in local Archives.

However if your grandfather was admitted before that - the local Archives covering that area probably have the records. There are some 'London' records on both Ancestry and Find My Past - might be worth checking if your grandfather's admission was within the dates they cover.

I have a Foundling - but much, much earlier than you. I was able to obtain a copy of his papers - in this case from London Metropolitan Archives - for a cost of course. These papers revealed who gave him his name - what he was dressed in -- where he was sent to be initially 'nursed' - and how he was despatched at age 6 (yes - age 6) - all the way to Ackworth in Yorkshire, where he became an 'apprentice' to a Master. The papers were very, very revealing.

However - the dates are important and it depends when your Grandfather was born, as to whether you will be able to access them.

Good Luck with this.

[BillyF]

Welcome to Rootschat.

There is some information on this website.
 
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/

As said before, the date is very important; I have someone that I know of who was admitted to a workhouse in 1917. I was told I could not access the admissions book until 2027, this was years ago when it seemed a very long time to wait ! It will obviously vary from place to place.

[BJC2020]

Thank you everybody for your support.  My grandfather is Edward Cowper he was born on 27/10/1889 and was discharged from the training ship Exmouth on 29 March 1905 aged 15 years according to one record I have found.  He was discharged to S.S. Oravia which I surmise sailed out of Liverpool where me and my family were born.  He married my grandmother Margaret Catherine Blake one of five daughters of ships engineer George Blake.

I have contacted the Director of the Foundling Museum who was unable to assist me and I am hoping that there is some record somewhere to establish whether he was found on a door step or entered the poorhouse some other way.

I have checked the Workhouse.org website and from there tracked down the discharge entry.  I have his original wedding certificate and photos of Edward, Margaret and my father George and my uncles Walter and Arthur.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to contact my uncles family to see if they are any the wiser but my father was the eldest.

Thanks again for your support.

[BJC2020]

A warm welcome to Rootschat from me also.

It really depends on the date your grandfather was firstly admitted, as often there is a 100 year closure on admission records in local Archives.

However if your grandfather was admitted before that - the local Archives covering that area probably have the records. There are some 'London' records on both Ancestry and Find My Past - might be worth checking if your grandfather's admission was within the dates they cover.

I have a Foundling - but much, much earlier than you. I was able to obtain a copy of his papers - in this case from London Metropolitan Archives - for a cost of course. These papers revealed who gave him his name - what he was dressed in -- where he was sent to be initially 'nursed' - and how he was despatched at age 6 (yes - age 6) - all the way to Ackworth in Yorkshire, where he became an 'apprentice' to a Master. The papers were very, very revealing.

However - the dates are important and it depends when your Grandfather was born, as to whether you will be able to access them.

Good Luck with this.


Thank you this does give me a little hope, I was also interested in the fact that you are researching family from Nenagh.  I have been researching my great grandfather on my mothers side, John Lloyd who was born in Nenagh in about 1834 I have his army parchment and visited Nenagh again with little success on tracking him down but plenty of typically Irish experiences during my trip.

[Ladyhawk]

My grandfather is Edward Cowper he was born on 27/10/1889 and was discharged from the training ship Exmouth on 29 March 1905 aged 15 years according to one record I have found.  He was discharged to S.S. Oravia which I surmise sailed out of Liverpool where me and my family were born. 

He married my grandmother Margaret Catherine Blake one of five daughters of ships engineer George Blake.

Edward Cowper single born 1890 London, tram car cleaner
boarding with his future wife to be Margaret Catherine Blake and her mother on 1911 census
in Liverpool https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWTG-7F7

Could this be Edward on 1901 census in Hampshire

Piece: 1090 Folio: 60 Page 13

James W Hickcox 37 Carter on farm
Eleanor Hickcox   39
Alice T Hickcox   4
Eleanor M Hickcox   3
Edith M Hickcox   8/12
Henry Garrett   11 foster son
Edward Cowper   10 Lambeth London, foster son

[Pennines]

That's a good find Ladyhawk -- pure supposition, but I wonder if the family took both their foster children from the Poor House/Workhouse?

I don't know if this applied as late as the 1900s, but 'Masters' used to be paid to take such children, and of course it got them off the costs they incurred in a Workhouse/Orphanage of feeding and clothing them. However maybe the early 1900s is a little too recent for that to have happened then.

[Pennines]

BJC -- re Nenagh -- yes my paternal grandmother and all her ancestors were born in Nenagh. The family came to Lancashire, presumably to work in the Mills - when she was only about 3 years old.

I was shocked when I started doing my family history to discover that I had an Irish Grandmother (my husband was Irish as well!!)