Hello everyone.     Could someone please help me with a very vexing problem of Agnes Jones,who could very well be my g.g.gran. In the 1851 census for Berkshire I found the following entered for Agnes  Jones ---- Registration District   Faringdon Sub Reg.  District     Shrivenham Civil Parish Great Faringdon           Faringdon Union Workhouse   Agnes  Jones      Born   Ashbury   Berkshire     Age 8  pauper   How can I find more about her and where would I locate this information. The FreeBMD  for Berks.  gives no birth for 1842 to 1846. The IGI  gives no birth/bap. The Family History  Library Catalouge has no inf.  for  films/fiche  for Faringdon Union Workhouse  that I could send for. There must have been registers that had to have been filled in by the person/s who put the child in the W/h. with names supplied etc on these registers . Please could anyone help or do a lookup for me if ang registers are available for this period.   Thankyou   Barrie Haigh  from beautiful Anna Bay  Australia

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ is a good place to start. It explains the circumstances in which people could end up in workhouses. Then click on the left on Workhouse Locations English Poor Law Unions Berkshire Faringdon It looks as if some records exist at Berkshire Record Office but may not contain much detail of individual inmates, though it does seem they have the baptism records for the workhouse over that time period. As Ashbury was in Faringdon Poor Law Union ( and thus registration district) I did a search of FreeBMD for anyone called Agnes born in that district in the years 1842/1843 who would thus have been aged 8 in 1851. Just one, in March quarter 1843, Agnes VARNEY Farringdon VI 182 However there was a death of an Agnes VARNEY in 1849 as well. Another approach would be to start off with all the JONES families in Ashbury in 1841 and try to track their BMDs through to 1851 census, assuming that the surname is right but that maybe the child's birth was not registered. http://www.berksfhs.org.uk/genuki/BRK/Ashbury/index.html may be useful. Why JONES, a Welsh surname, in Berkshire? Think Drove Roads, poor Welsh drovers driving herds of cattle, sheep and even geese across country on the old tracks to the rich South-East of England for sale and slaughter. The Ridgeway over the Berkshire Downs went right past Ashbury. Two other thoughts. It could have been that Agnes was not actually born in Ashbury, but her mother 'belonged' to that parish, so if her mother was taken into the workhouse Alice came with her. Also, children may not have known how old they were. Officials such as workhouse masters may have estimated the ages. Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "bazza yorky" <bazzayorky@yahoo.com.au> To: <BERKSHIRE@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 7:41 AM Subject: [BRK] Agnes Jones Hello everyone. Could someone please help me with a very vexing problem of Agnes Jones,who could very well be my g.g.gran. In the 1851 census for Berkshire I found the following entered for Agnes Jones ---- Registration District Faringdon Sub Reg. District Shrivenham Civil Parish Great Faringdon Faringdon Union Workhouse Agnes Jones Born Ashbury Berkshire Age 8 pauper How can I find more about her and where would I locate this information. The FreeBMD for Berks. gives no birth for 1842 to 1846. The IGI gives no birth/bap. The Family History Library Catalouge has no inf. for films/fiche for Faringdon Union Workhouse that I could send for. There must have been registers that had to have been filled in by the person/s who put the child in the W/h. with names supplied etc on these registers . Please could anyone help or do a lookup for me if ang registers are available for this period. Thankyou Barrie Haigh from beautiful Anna Bay Australia

It looks as if some records exist at Berkshire Record Office but may not contain much detail of individual inmates, though it does seem they have the baptism records for the workhouse over that time period. I scored big time with the workhouse records for Bradfield at BRO. From 1836-1844, my 3rd great-grandmother and most of her children were in and out of the workhouse. Each arrival and departure was documented with remarks on character, circumstances, observations, and a description. My favorite was "Bastard mother absconded leaving five children destitute. Husband recently dead."