The post discusses printed lists naming recipients of relief from 1840-1884, and shows that the glass is not quite as empty as may at first be believed if you are searching for records of Edinburgh based ancestors requiring aid in that period (most original registers have been destroyed, unlike Glasgow).
Very useful to know!
Chris
Thanks for mentioning my blog post Chris! :-)
ReplyDeleteThere does seem to be a belief that Edinburgh has no poor relief records and, in general, that unless the original poor relief application survives you won't find any worthwhile information (I was basically told that by an archivist in Glasgow), but I think there are plenty of useful clues to be extracted from these lists of poor. Certainly worth a try!
Kirsty
Agreed, and I'm sure I probably shared in the distribution of that rumour at some point! lol
ReplyDeleteI'm actually writing piece for Irish Roots just now on poor law removals from Scotland and England - loads of records on House of Commons Parliamentary Papers listing those returned to Ireland from Scotland, naming very similar info to that in your post, but also naming poor law unions to which returned to in Ireland. First found out about them on a website called Raymond's County Down, but have since discovered there are tonnes more on the parliament site.
Some areas in Scotland don't have application records, but minutes can still be useful. I had a client about 3 years ago whose ancestor died in a poorhouse - whilst app registers etc were missing, the minutes still described exactly what else was going on in the poorhouse in the week she died. It was all fairly horrendous, but useful contextual stuff.
Hope you found what you were looking for in the records!
Chris