Pauper Ancestors: A Guide to the Records Created by the Poor Laws in England and Wales - Hardcover

Hawkings, David T

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752456652 ISBN 13: 9780752456652

Publisher: The History Press, 2011

Synopsis

The first Poor Law was enacted in 1601, and this system of social security, which was supposed to ensure that those who could not work had food, drink and a roof over their heads, but which is inextricably linked in the public imagination with the cruelty of the workhouse, was not finally abolished until the creation of the NHS in 1948. Being part of the government bureaucracy, detailed records were kept of everything: rate-payers, collectors of rates, workhouse overseers and the staff and inmates of workhouses, as well poor people who were helped to move to the North of England to work in industry, those given assisted passage to Australia and children sent to Canada. David T. Hawkings, one of Britain’s leading genealogists, here explains for the first time how to use these records to trace your family history, providing an important, must-have resource for genealogists and family historians who want to make use of this comprehensive repository of information.

About this title

About the Author

David T. Hawkings has spent more than 40 years researching his own family history. He created the television series Find Your Family, worked on the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, is a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists, and was founder chairman of the West Middlesex Family History Society. He is the author of Railway Ancestors and Criminal Ancestors.

Edition details

• Publisher: The History Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0752456652
• ISBN 13: 9780752456652
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512