Dear Listers, Given that I do understand the meaning of the conventional term "pauper" as it relates to a person without any personal means of support, other than from welfare or charity. I welcome comments on how this terminology would apply to a 1861 Crawcrook, Gateshead Census for a family of eight persons whose head was a woman, age 68 years, who lived with a married daughter, age 30 years, and six grand-children of various ages & surnames. In the census column headed " Rank, Profession or Occupation" I read "Pauper, family coal miner's wife". Would I assume from this that the household was living on a dole; a stipend of money, food etc. given at regular intervals in charity? Would this have been the case even thought the family was residing in their own home and not in a workhouse setting? Was it a common practice in the UK during the time period to enumerate such circumstances, in the census, in such a public manner? Thank you, Bette

Hi Bette Many of the larger pits ran their own assistance programme that miners paid into from their weekly pay. As accidents were so frequent and there were periods when the miners were unable to work due to physical injury or bronchial illness these were a lifeline to the miner's families. Regards Net -----Original Message----- From: dur-nbl-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dur-nbl-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Bette McIntosh Sent: 25 November 2006 18:42 To: DUR-NBL@rootsweb.com Subject: [DUR-NBL] "Pauper, family coal miner's wife" Dear Listers, Given that I do understand the meaning of the conventional term "pauper" as it relates to a person without any personal means of support, other than from welfare or charity. I welcome comments on how this terminology would apply to a 1861 Crawcrook, Gateshead Census for a family of eight persons whose head was a woman, age 68 years, who lived with a married daughter, age 30 years, and six grand-children of various ages & surnames. In the census column headed " Rank, Profession or Occupation" I read "Pauper, family coal miner's wife". Would I assume from this that the household was living on a dole; a stipend of money, food etc. given at regular intervals in charity? Would this have been the case even thought the family was residing in their own home and not in a workhouse setting? Was it a common practice in the UK during the time period to enumerate such circumstances, in the census, in such a public manner? Thank you, Bette ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== To Post a message to this list send it to, DUR-NBL-L@rootsweb.com ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== List Web Page http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/durhamgenealogy/index.phtml ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DUR-NBL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message