There are comprehensive sets of records covering the 27 poor law unions that were established in the counties of Northern Ireland. Originally, there were 28 Unions established, but the Union of Gortin (BG/28) was amalgamated with Omagh (BG/26) in 1870. The extent to which the records survive for each of these unions varies from place to place. The minute books, the admission and discharge registers, the registers of births and deaths and the outdoor relief registers are all valuable source material for anyone interested in tracing their family tree.
Classes of records include:
- minute books,
- admission and discharge registers (listing those entering and leaving the workhouse),
- registers of births and deaths and of those receiving outdoor relief.
IMPORTANT Due to the sensitive nature of some of the material contained within them, most of these registers are closed for 100 years from the latest date in each volume. This means that a register that contains information recorded in June, 1903, will not be open to the until January 2004 (the first working day in the year following their hundredth anniversary). Registers dating from 1838-1900 (where available) are open to the public.
There are complete sets of minute books for almost all the unions, and even those unions with imperfect sets lack only an occasional volume. These volumes are of less interest to genealogists as they contain minutes of the meetings of the various committees and a great deal of purely statistical information. However, they also contain the names of those individuals whom the Board of Guardians assisted to emigrate. Several volumes of minutes have been transcribed and are available on the Public Search Room shelves.
The admission and discharge registers list those entering and leaving the workhouse. There are also registers of births and deaths and of those receiving outdoor relief. All of these records provide lists of names which could well prove useful to the genealogical searcher, particularly for the poorer classes who are unlikely to be recorded elsewhere. Occasionally, lists of inmates of the infirmaries and fever hospitals attached to the workhouse have survived and these ought to be searched.
Each Poor Law Union was named after the principle town in the area and often extended across county boundaries. |
