The Poor Law Act of 1838 During the years the Townland Valuation was being conducted, an alarming increase in the number of people in Ireland unable to support themselves was evident to civil authorities and religious leaders. Parliament legislated an Act in 1838 This Act declared that relief was to be provided within a Workhouse system. The legislations called for the country to be devided into administrative districts known as Poor Law Unions, each to be a geographical joining of townlands within ten miles of a large market town in which the Workhouse was to be located. Bounderies of unions often crossed county, barony and civil parsih lines, they did not, however, intersect townland bounderies. The admission ticket into the Poor Law Union Workhouse required the folowing entries; Name, surname , age, wife, children under 15 Married, divorced, widowed, ect Last time in a work house, time you left home Disability Ungency Names and callings of relations Last residence , and how long Electoral division, townland date. These would appear to ba a very good souce of information.