Genealogy Em

Yesterday I wrote about how to read a British militia attestation form and used the example of a young man named James Sword. His story truly embodies what it was like to grow up in poverty during the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras.  The Early Years James was born July 27 1889 in Bow, London, England - making him the baby of the Sword family. He had four older sisters and one older brother. At the time of his birth the family was struggling financially, and that would only worsen a month later when his father died. Now widowed with five children still in her care, James' mother had no choice but to turn to the Board of Guardians for relief. Within a year the entire family was admitted to the Wandsworth and Clapham Union Workhouse. The duration of the family's stay was brief. By 1901, they had left the workhouse but were still struggling to get by. They were living on Ammiel St in Bow. Their home literally fell down around them, and the neighbouring homes that remained...

They say that 1 in 10 people with British ancestry can trace their family back to the workhouse. For my family this statement is true. The process of filing for relief from the Board of Guardians was long and required the individual to provide detailed information about themselves.  In two of my previous posts I spoke of a woman named Bessie. After her father died in 1889, her mother mad no choice but to turn to the workhouse. She had six children between the ages of one month and 15 to support. The Poor Law records I found on this family contained a wealth of information - much of which I had never seen before.  Settlement Examination   The process began by with a settlement examination. The main purpose of this record was to determine what Poor Law Union was responsible for the pauper's upkeep (otherwise known as residency). The head of the family would be asked to provide the following information: where each member of the family was born if they are married and i...

Battersea: The Sinkhole of Surrey During the Victorian Era, Battersea had gained the reputation as being “the sinkhole of Surrey” due to its widespread poverty and slum-like conditions. Many of the poor in Battersea were subject to irregular income from the building trades. For a family to scrape by in the winter they would have to apply thrift spending during the summer. This was often complicated by the reliance on alcohol which was used as a means of escape from the depression of living in such widespread poverty. The irregular income caused many of Battersea’s poor to frequently be on the move. On average a family lived in one place for less than two years before moving no more than a few streets away. After hopping from neighbourhood to neighbourhood the family would eventually return to where they were once exiled from, moving in only a few doors away from their former address. Ford’s Folly and the slum of Little Hell In Keith Bailey’s report Orville Road, Battersea: a Victor...