Frederick County Poor Farm in Virginia, United States, By AgnosticPreachersKid – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48996373Poor houses and poor farms, which go by many different names, have a long history in English speaking countries. Quoting from the History.com article, “Poorhouses Were Designed to Punish People for Their Poverty,”
The concept of the poorhouse originated in England during the 17th century. Municipalities were expected to care for their poor, and made a distinction between people who were old and unable to care for themselves and the able-bodied. People who were able to work were expected to do so—and could be imprisoned if they refused.
Refusal to work was rather liberally interpreted and were related historically to debtors’ prisons. Debtors’ prisons date back into ancient history. Quoting from Wikipedia: Debtors’ prison”
During Europe’s Middle Ages, debtors, both men and women, were locked up together in a single, large cell until their families paid their debt. Debt prisoners often died of diseases contracted from other debt prisoners. Conditions included starvation and abuse from other prisoners. If the father of a family was imprisoned for debt, the family business often suffered while the mother and children fell into poverty. Unable to pay the debt, the father often remained in debtors’ prison for many years. Some debt prisoners were released to become serfs or indentured servants (debt bondage) until they paid off their debt in labor.
Many genealogists dream of connecting their ancestry to royalty or a famous person or family but the reality is that there are many more poor people than those who are famous. Unfortunately, going back in time, finding the records of the poor people of the world is much more of a challenge than linking up to a royal family. One source of early records from England and a few other countries can be found in poor house records. This type of record also exists in the British colonies including colonial North America.
In the United Kingdom, there is a major website dedicated to workhouse records. Here is a screenshot of the website with a link.
The Workhouse, The Story of an institution
The links on this website lead to a huge number of resources. As it is with most genealogical research, moving beyond the basic, easily obtainable records includes the challenge of learning about how and where such additional records are maintained and made available. The words “easy” and “shortcut” do not apply to genealogical research.
Some of my own ancestors in England were actually paid to leave the country and sent to Australia in an alternative to having their parish or the government pay for their maintenance in a poorhouse.
You may also wish to review the links in this article from the FamilySearch Research Wiki.
