Tracing Your Poor Ancestors by Stuart A. Raymond

Author:Stuart A. Raymond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REFERENCE / Genealogy & Heraldry
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Birth and/or baptism registers

Workhouse masters were expected to keep registers of births and/or baptisms of workhouse inmates. In the early years, some events recorded in these registers were not entered in the civil registers. Birth registers are likely to record the baby’s name, the name(s) of parents, the date of birth, whether the child was legitimate, and the parish to which the parents belonged. Sometimes the date and place of baptism was also recorded. Workhouse registers frequently also record ‘discharged with the mother before baptised’.1 Usually, baptism took place in the local parish church, which means that its register should also be checked for workhouse children’s baptisms. The baptismal register of St Matthew’s, Exeter, a short walk away from Exeter Workhouse, is full of baptismal entries for workhouse babies, and indeed its gallery was probably built to accommodate workhouse children.

Occasionally, baptism took place privately in the workhouse (usually because the baby was ill). A few workhouses, however, had their own chapels, where baptism could take place if the bishop provided a licence.

Some workhouse registers have been digitised. See, for example:

• Cheshire Workhouse Registers: Baptisms

www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/world-records/full-list-of-united-kingdom-records/institutions-and-organisations/cheshire-workhouse-records-baptisms

Covers 1880–1910. Find My Past also has birth and baptism registers from Guildford Union, 1866–1910.

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