Rules of the Work House

[maz1950]

Can anyone tell whether you could live as a family in the work house or were the families split up. If you could live as a family did you have to supply proof of marriage. I am trying to work out why my 3 great grand paraents decided to marry 1865 some 15 yaers after the birth of the first of their 5 children. Having purchased their marriage certificate I hav note that they were both resident in the work house. They were nt living their in previous cencuses. He died a year later and at next cencus 1871 she was not in the work house any more. I was thinking that they married because they had to move to the work ouse does anyone knowif that would be correct.

Marion

[Jan1954]

Try this website:

workhouses.org.uk

[Peter Goodey]

1. Families were always split up although very young children might be accommodated with the mother. Occasional supervised meetings were allowed.

If you have a chance to visit Southwell Workhouse, take it. You'll be able to see for yourself how strict segregation was built into the design of the building.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-theworkhouse/

2. They may have decided to marry because the man thought he was dying.

3. Are there any other interesting features about the marriage certificate?

[maz1950]

Thank you both for your replys. There is nothing very interesting about the certificate it doesn't even say what work house they were in. Although as they married in Kensington and were living in St Mary Abbott I should think it would be the one there. They are one of my families that I feel very sad about. Thomas Gudgeon was only 44 when he died in 1866. His daughter Martha died age 42 his eldest son William was born deformed according to 1871 cencus when he was a resident Convent of Notra Dame as a pupli age 21 he later died at the age of 29. Hs son Charles died at the age of 45 in 1898. is other son Joseph my 2x greatgrandfather died in 1886 at the age of 26. I purchased his death certificate to see what he died from . It was heart disease so maybe it ran i the family. Only one of his children survied past 1901 was Samuel who was 44 then asyet I have not found his death entry so maybe he lived to a ripe ols age.

Maz

[*bunty*]

Wow, that is sad. Not a long-lived lineage there. I often find myself frustrated at the early deaths of my ancestors also. Three were wiped out with tuberculosis in one month - the mother and two children :(. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a young one so early in their life.

[David Annis]

On the site that Jan suggested. WWW. Workhouses, there is an article written at the time, by a journalist about tramps staying overnight at a workhouse. He past himself off as a tramp and spent the night in a London workhouse. It certainly was no YMCA hostel.
As a youngster I remember that there was regular yearly visits to my home town by certain tramps. They would stay for a few days then move on. We would have them knocking on the door asking mainly for water and I expect, if there were any scraps of food these would be given as well. No one seemed to be bothered or frightened by these people and their plight seem to be excepted as a matter of course. There was a steady stream of other tramps that never came back to the town. Men moving around the country going from one workhouse to another, often looking for work. I cannot ever remember seeing a female tramp though.
I do remember my old Gran taking an old lady in as a lodger who turned out to be a nasty old thing and was a bit of a con artist. She would not pay her way. If I remember, my mother was called to the house to get the old lady out and there was a bit of a fuss.
Cheers.
Dave

[jeeb]

Wow, that is sad. Not a long-lived lineage there. I often find myself frustrated at the early deaths of my ancestors also. Three were wiped out with tuberculosis in one month - the mother and two children :(. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a young one so early in their life.

Hi,
Early mortality was common and I cannot imagine how they coped with it.

A little experiment gives an idea of the high infant mortality. I stress this can only be used as a guide but it will not be that far off reality.

In 1851 on the England census there were 4,302 John Smith listed under the age of ten. Accepting the inaccuracies and movement either way, by 1861 there were only 3,723 listed aged between 10 & 20. According to this very simple statistic nearly 600 children under 10 named John Smith in 1851 died within the next 10 years. About 14%

Jeremy

[ET in the USA]

"According to this very simple statistic nearly 600 children under 10 named John Smith in 1851 died within the next 10 years. About 14%"

Very interesting Jeremy.

Personally, when searching Free BMD for births of children in a family found on the census I search Births & Deaths at the same time. Very sad how many come and go within the same year or even quarter. Also very telling when the census birth years appear to have a gap - 1840, 1842, 1844, 1848, 1852... Something happened to interrupt the every 2 year birth cycle - usually death of the child. I wonder what the current mortality percentage is in, say, the USA or UK compared to some African countries. Have even the poorest countries improved, or with new diseases (HIV) has it gotten worse ?