Poorhouses & Poverty » The Poor Law, Work Houses, Poor Houses & Poor House Unions in the U.K.

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• A Short Explanation of the Poor Law

• Alcester Union and Guardians Part 2: The Workhouse

• Ancestry.com - Search Schools, Directories & Church Histories

  Ancestry.com has searchable indexes; database results and some digitized images are available with a fee-based subscription.

  • London, England, Poor Law Records, 1834-1940

    Original source: Board of Guardians records held by the London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts, London, England.

• Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service: Bedfordshire: Poor Law Union Records

  United Kingdom.

• Cambridgeshire Poor Law Papers Index

  England. Searchable online database from Cambridgeshire Family History Society.

• Care Of The Poor

  Wales. From the Powys Digital History Project.

• Database of Poor Law records for West Sussex

  Transcriptions of over 8,000 records from documents of Settlement and Removal 1662-1835. Organized by surnames, order types, year & parish. From the Sussex Record Society

• FDCA Poor Indexes - Index of Poor Registers

  Dundee, Scotland. From the Friends of Dundee City Archives. Online index of Liff & Benvie Register of Poor (1854-1865) and Dundee East Poorhouse Register (1856-1878).

• Floor Plan of Blackburn Union Workhouse

  England.

• Headington Union Workhouse Formerly on London Road

  Oxfordshire, England.

• History of the Workhouse

  Excellent site full of information on the UK workhouse system. Includes information on the Poor Laws, maps of the Poor Law Unions, scans of original records on diet, instruction, and rules, and more.

• How It Was: Conditions in the Workhouse

  Article by Dr. Marjie Bloy.

• Index to Paupers in Workhouses 1861 (10% sample)

  This lists adult paupers in workhouses in England and Wales.

• Leitrim Poor Law Union Map

  Ireland.

• National Archives of Scotland Fact Sheets - The Poor

• Poor Children of Elham

  Late 19th to early 20th century names of interest for people who think they had descendants in Elham, Kent, England.
  [The original link is broken. This link points to an archived copy on the Wayback Machine]

• Poor Law

  United Kingdom.

  • Poor Law Union Database

    Alphabetical listing of parish or place names giving county, Poor Law Union, and record office information.

• Poor Law Index

  Angmering, Sussex.

• Poor Law Union Map of Ireland

  Marking workhouses both before and after 1849.

• Poor Law Union Records

  England. From the Northamptonshire Record Office.