Tracing Your Pauper Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians

by Robert Burlison

Overview

A practical and informative guide for family historians interested in researching their British ancestry through social welfare records.

Many family historians will come across direct links to ancestors who were affected by poverty. Yet despite the burgeoning interest in genealogy, the history of pauperism and of poor relief has rarely been written about. Tracing Your PauperAncestors provides a guide to documents and records that family researchers can use to trace their pauper ancestors.

Author Robert Burlison gives a vivid account of poverty and the poor in the United Kingdom, discussing its causes, the many forms of charitable relief, and the largely repressive Poor Laws. He identifies relevant records, indicates where they can be found, and offers essential advice on how this information can be used to piece together the lives of distant and not so distant relatives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783830763
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	01/31/2020
Series:	Tracing Your Ancestors
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	426,647
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Robert Burlison is an author and historian.

Table of Contents

Preface 7

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 10

Section 1 The Causes of Poverty 15

Chapter 1 The Causes of Poverty in Pre-industrial Britain 16

Chapter 2 The Causes of Poverty in the Industrial Age 23

Section 2 The Responses to Poverty 35

Chapter 3 Early State Intervention 36

Chapter 4 Charity in Pre-industrial Britain 56

Chapter 5 Poor Laws in the Nineteenth Century 70

Chapter 6 Charity and Self-help in the Industrial Age 97

Chapter 7 The Welfare State 112

Chapter 8 Destitute Children - a Case Study 126

Section 3 Searching for Poor and Pauper Ancestors 149

Appendix 1 Getting Started 150

Appendix 2 The Records 156

Appendix 3 Further Reading 177

Appendix 4 Useful Websites 180

Appendix 5 Notes and References 182

Index 189

Editorial Reviews

"goes well beyond the basics by opening up lots of research possibilities. It is highly recommended."

FGS FORUM