Does family history get to you sometimes?

[coombs]

My ancestor was in the workhouse and was admitted the day before he died, so he was just there to go into hospital so to speak. Another London ancestor entered the workhouse on an off inbetween 1885 and his 1889 death but he was 72 in 1885 which was a ripe old age back then so must have been unwell. He died in April 1889, so lived long enough to read all about the Jack The Ripper killings just 2 miles away in Whitechapel.

[lydiaann]

So sad, Coombs.  Several people in my 5 trees (3 on my side, 2 on Himself's) stayed intermittently or died in the workhouse. 

We keep saying "it must have been hard".  Strangely, before lockdown, we discussed this at a Book Group I was running.  We were reading 'Longbourn' which looks at life through the eyes of the Bennett family (they of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice'), and their perceptions of life.  We were aghast at the 'chores' they had to perform and the conditions in which they lived and worked, but we acknowledged that we were looking at them through our own 21st century eyes.  So, although it was 'hard' for them, was it as bad as WE think it was?  Teenagers now cannot believe that people of my age (76) grew up in houses that had no central heating, baths that were used once a week, coal fires, no telephone, no television until 1960 (in my case), etc. etc. And they don't understand the concept of food/clothes rationing at all.  Therefore, to a young teenager, our life must seem as hard to them as the lives of the characters of 'Longbourn' do to us.

I still stick to my theory that possibly life in the Workhouse was less arduous than life on the street as a pauper - but I am still grateful for living in MY age!!

[coombs]

So sad, Coombs.  Several people in my 5 trees (3 on my side, 2 on Himself's) stayed intermittently or died in the workhouse. 

We keep saying "it must have been hard".  Strangely, before lockdown, we discussed this at a Book Group I was running.  We were reading 'Longbourn' which looks at life through the eyes of the Bennett family (they of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice'), and their perceptions of life.  We were aghast at the 'chores' they had to perform and the conditions in which they lived and worked, but we acknowledged that we were looking at them through our own 21st century eyes.  So, although it was 'hard' for them, was it as bad as WE think it was?  Teenagers now cannot believe that people of my age (76) grew up in houses that had no central heating, baths that were used once a week, coal fires, no telephone, no television until 1960 (in my case), etc. etc. And they don't understand the concept of food/clothes rationing at all.  Therefore, to a young teenager, our life must seem as hard to them as the lives of the characters of 'Longbourn' do to us.

I still stick to my theory that possibly life in the Workhouse was less arduous than life on the street as a pauper - but I am still grateful for living in MY age!!

I agree, they did not know any different, as in they never knew that years down the line life would get better, and there would be computers, great medicines, better food etc. They never had them so would not know about them. Thomas Roberts spent his last 6 weeks in the workhouse as he was admitted in mid March 1889, his death cert says he died of dropsy and bronchitis aged 76.