Relief Office records

[Nicos]

Not sure if this is posted in the right place.....

I am having problems tracing one ( ha!-well most !!!:o) of my tree lines and I'm pretty sure one member of that tree would have been very very poor.
I understand that Elizabeth 1 required Poor relief to be collected from wealthy folks and handed to the poor.

How successful would this have been...and would records have been kept as to who was given it? ( I'm thinking pre-workhouse here - I think....when did workhouses start????)

Lots of questions.......:D

[Geoffers]

A lot depends on when

Survival relating to the 'when' depends on where/

If this relates to a county where the record office has a good web-site, explanation of contents and a search engine, that would be the place to look.

Could you give a few more details? - perhaps name, date, place?

Lots more questions!!

[Peter Goodey]

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/index.html has a section with an overview of the Poor Laws. I think you may find it helpful.

Presumably you're talking about dates before 1834 when the parish was the administrative unit for such matters. There were certainly records but whether they have survived is quite another matter. As Geoffers says, generally speaking if the records are anywhere they will be at the relevant CRO.

[Nicos]

My relative is EDWARD TOLLIDAY of possibly Alconbury, Huntingdon

His son EDWARD TOLLIDAY was born in 1823 in Huntingdon and married MARY ANN COLEMAN 17/9/1855

Mary wasin the Workhouse with her mother, sister and brother in 1841 - aged 4 yrs and became stepdaughter to a Mr Chambers - who had died by 1851

There seem to be only a few TOLLIDAY families in that area of Huntingdon/Cambridge at that time, but I just can't make a link - if there indeed is one!

The famous member of the Tolliday family name is BATES TOLLIDAY

http://www.hisimp.net/history/hishist5.htm

I expect they were probably distant(ish) relatives but just hit a block with Edward Snr ( Edward's father).

Their first daughter was called Susan and Mary Ann had no relatives of that name, so I suspect ( Sherlock Holmes style) that Edward Snr may well have been married to a Susan.
When Susan died ( aged 1 month), the next daughter was also called Susan .
....

The Tolliday family were Methodists, so maybe there were some records there- although I believe that line only started in the 1850's ( ish)???

[Geoffers]

My relative is EDWARD TOLLIDAY of possibly Alconbury, Huntingdon His son EDWARD TOLLIDAY was born in 1823 in Huntingdon and married MARY ANN COLEMAN 17/9/1855 Mary wasin the Workhouse with her mother, sister and brother in 1841

This is after the amendment of the Poor Laws in 1834 and so subject to the Poor Law Unions. Read through the link Peter provided for advice.

For information on workhouses have a look at this link (http://www.workhouses.org.uk/)

The record office at Huntingdon (http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/visiting/crohuntingdon.htm) may have the workhosue records


There seem to be only a few TOLLIDAY families in that area of Huntingdon/Cambridge at that time, but I just can't make a link - if there indeed is one!

Don't lose those records - the moment you decide to throw them away, you'll find something that might help link the families. The link may be recent, it may be a couple of hundred years back; but do keep hold of the information and plot on a map where they were born and lived as any apparent clusters may indicate a good place to try for parish records.

[suedent]

It may well be worth checking to see if the Poor Law Records exist for the parishes you are interested in. Sometimes the "Parish Chest" materials for a parish can hold some useful snippets too.

There is a good chance that your relative will have applied for Parish Relief before going to the workhouse.
Such records often include "Removal Orders" which is where a person was living away from a Parish to which they had connections. That Parish would be reluctant to pay out for an incomer & would apply to have the person/family removed to their own Parish.