pauper children

[Lakeslass]

How can I find out whether my g.g.grandfather was brought to Cheshire as a pauper child about 1800?

[Sammy Snake]

I would try contacting Cheshire Records Office for advice. I'm sure that if anyone does, they will hold the records you need.

[Sammy Snake]

The principal collection of records relating to the county is held in the Cheshire Record Office, Duke Street, Chester, CH1 1RL - Tel: [phone]. E-mail [email protected]

[don1]

I hope you find what you are looking for Lakeslass but I seriously doubt that the records will go back to 1800

[sammy snake]

don1, Records offices hold records much further back than 1800, nobody would get very far tracing their family tree is they didn't!

[don1]

Sammy I have tried to trace my family tree and the furtherest back I have got is 1876, if you can help me get back further I would be eternally grateful.

[dotjhawkes]

Churchwardens accounts would have recorded the removal order for a pauper living in a praish other than that of their birth. If you have found out the village or town of his birth, from the census probably, you then need to check the Chuurchwarden's accounts not just for the birth parish, but for the parish taking the chils on. local payers of the Church Rate would have had to support the child therefore the Churchwardens would likely have apprenticed the child at a very early age, i have copies for child apprenticeships from as young as 8 years old. Cheshire Record Office will hopefully have an index of the Parish Records for the village of birth and settlement.

[Sammy Snake]

don1, I have got mine back to mid 1700's so far although have to admit it isn't a cheap hobby and I'm lucky enough to live 1/2 mile away from the Records Office nearest where all my relatives come from!

You should be able to get back further than 1876. Have you tried any of these sites?

www.freeBMD.org.uk - Has free birth marriage and death references 1837-c1910 although its not complete

www.ancestry.co.uk - Has censuses from 1851-1901 and same info as freeBMD but you have to pay.

www.rootschat.com - an excellent site full of message boards all arranged in counties etc. Post a question on there and some expert will help you. And it's free!

www.genesreconnected.co.uk Also has message boards with lots of experts who can help, �9.50 per year to post on the boards although you can read them or put your tree on for free.

Apologies if you already know of all these sites!

[dotjhawkes]

I did all my research using the sources in various Record Offices, and unless you actually can look at the original churchwardens records, you will be unlikely to get the same detail from a web based research site.

[dotjhawkes]

Just to clarify, The Overseeers of the Poor were members of the Churchwardens committee and it was their duty to examine all aliens arriving within their Parish Boundaries to find out of they had a means of support. To travel across Parish Boundaries and settle in another Parish, a person had to show how they could support themselves but they also would have a Settlement Certifiate, issued by the Parish they belonged to, which meant that Parish was their home parish, if the person then fell on hard times and needed Parish Relief, the Chruchwardens could have them Removed from the new Parish and sent back to the Parish of Settlement. Therefore a Removal Order would be made and this also would be recorded in the Overseers books.

[dotjhawkes]

There is another source that may be a possibility too, if the child was born out of wedlock, there were a number of events that may have been recorded by the over seer or sometimes the Quarter Sessions, a filiation or ******** order may have been made by the overseers against the father, and this would usually follow on from the mother being examined before the overseer and admitting who the father was. Many Family Historians overlook this as a source for establishing a father for an illegitiamte birth.

[Peter Pedant]

You're in luck LC

not only Dot H giving you the proper stuff but also Cheshire being one of the most computerised records office.

first you must do all the stuff on computer and then take a day in Chester where the microfiches are and do a day looking through them (and then down the hill to the Roman museum). I think you may need a passport photo. You book in the first time and they give you a card.

Your gg father - lets call him John Smith....

what info do you have on him. IF he lives to 51, he'll be on the 1851 census. That's on the net. It will tell you his age and also where he was born.

If he is a child in 1800, then let us say it shows he is aged 56 in the 1851 census, and the place - bloggsville.

You will need the bloggscille parish records for 1794. Hopefully Cheshire. Once you find him, there will also info about the parents.

Cheshire was good - i got much more info much more quickly than manchester - uncomputerised and an absolute nightmare.....

Good Luck

and also and also - the early censuses They started in 1801 and up to about 1841 were a collection of names and not much else......

Some parishes were told to destroy the returns but didnt. And others did. So you neva know, Cheshire may have the bloogsville 1841 returns. As far as I can see the town clerks had paid for census takers to fill out forms and could not bring themselves to destroy what they had paid good money for.

[dotjhawkes]

I have a book here that lists by County all the surviving census returns for 1801/1811/1821 and 1831, these were done by the Parishes rather than the GRO therefore they are erratic not only in survival rate but also in content. But in your question you say he may have been 'brought to Cheshire as a pauper child about 1800' therefore it is his County/ village of birth that you need from the census. Once u have that you will be ablre to find his baptism and that will take you to the next generation.

[don1]

I'll give them a go Sammy/Dot keep my fingers crossed.

[Peter Pedant]

Which book is that dot, cherie ?

Many thanks Dot. PP

[dotjhawkes]

Peter it is the Marriage, Census and Other Indexes for Family Historians by Jeremy Gibson publisjed by the Federation of family History Societies.

[dotjhawkes]

http://www.ffhs.org.uk/

[dotjhawkes]

Local Census Listings 1522-1930: Holdings in the British Isles
Book - Ref: FED-5015

There are an unexpected quantity of 'quasi-censuses' pre-dating the decennial national census, whose records survive in unexpected quantity. They include locally retained census enumeration lists made for 1801-1831 which included names of individuals, and many others in earlier centuries. For the first time these are comprehensively listed for the whole of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Compiled by Jeremy Gibson & Mervyn Medlycott, 3rd edition (FFHS, 2001). 52 pages (A5).

Price: �3.50 ( + 0.00 VAT in UK/EU) + postage

[don1]

I'm amazed and very glad I might add that so many abers have found ways to get back to the dim and distant past where my pathetic efforts have failed.

I'll be giving this my closest attention. I would put a big smiley face here but there arn't any so I'll say WhooHoo