Complicated Working Class Histories

[coombs]

I've had a difficult challenge researching my family history as several of my ancestors were in and out of workhouses under the Poor Laws and earlier Debtor Laws.

While it is always sad to find ancestors in the workhouse, it can actually be helpful for the researcher, as it greatly increases the chances of finding records for them.

It is often said, and with good reason, that during the 19th century the very poor and the very rich are the best documented groups in historical records. By contrast, the law-abiding, self-sufficient, untroublesome and sometimes un-newsworthy middling groups can be the hardest to research, especially between censuses.

True, like the very poor came under the poor law authorities which can have a plethora of records about settlement certs, examinations and removal orders (where they survive) and the more well off ancestors often left wills. The middling ones never poor enough to leave a great paper trail for their nosey descendants and never rich enough to leave wills mentioning an "Aunt Mabel in Northumberland" and that said person was living in Birmingham in 1841, and said "Not born in county" in that year's census, and died in 1849.

[Nifty1]

What was the penalty of escaping from a workhouse ? and changing your name to conceal escape ?

Workhouses were not prisons, and there was no need to ‘escape’ from them.

Many became hospitals and are now quite luxurious apartments.

[Ruskie]

I've had a difficult challenge researching my family history as several of my ancestors were in and out of workhouses under the Poor Laws and earlier Debtor Laws.

I was shocked to read how many young children and babies died in 19th century workhouses.  No wonder there are so many tales of children escaping and living on the streets - just like the Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist.

It shocks me to compare their desperate lives with so many affluent school children of today.

Comparing the lives of the poor then with lives of the poor today, might be a “better” way to compare advancements in health, housing etc. There has always been a rich/poor divide. 

[Nifty1]

All in the mind.