This was posted to another list and I thought it might be of interest. ---------------Original Message--------------- Taken from PRONI : Your Family Tree 13 Poor Law records are the archives of the Board of Guardians who administered the poor law in Ireland from 1839-1948. The original aim of the poor law system was to provide indoor relief to the destitute poor in workhouses. However, as a result of the Great Famine, outdoor relief was granted in the form of money or goods to the able-bodied poor, and this ensured that by the turn of the century, the workhouses in Ireland hd become a refuge for the old, sick and children under the ages of 15. In 1838, Ireland was divided into one hundred and thirty seven unions, based on market towns where a workhouse or union house was built with an infirmary and fever hospital attached. At the time it was thought that an area with a radius of about ten miles was the most suitable for administrative purposes. This system was financed by a rate collected under the Poor Law Valuation. There are comprehensive sets of records covering the 27 poor law unions which were established in the counties of Northern Ireland. The extent to which the records survive for each of these varies from place to place. The minute books, the admission and discharge registers, the registers of births and deaths and the outdoor relief registers are all a valuable material for anyone interested in tracing their family tree. Minute Books There are complete sets of books for almost all the unions, and even those unions with imperfect sets lack only an occasional volume. These volumes are of less interest to genealogists as they contain minutes of the meetings of the various committees and a great deal of purely statistical information. However, they also contain the names of those individuals whom the Board of Guardians assisted to emigrate. Admission and Discharge Registers The admission and discharge registers list those entering and leaving the workhouse. There are also registers of births and deaths and of those receiving outdoor relief. All of these records provide lists of names which could prove useful to the genealogical researcher, particularly for the poorer classes who are unlikely to be recorded elsewhere. Occsionally, lists of inmates of the infirmaries and fever hospitals attached to the workhouse have survived and these ought to be searched. The printed Valuation Books for 1860 (which are available on the shelves of the Public Search Room), are organised on the basis of Poor Law Unions. From these you can discover which Board of Guardian records to search for the townland or parish in which you are interested. Each Poor Law Union was named after a chief town in the area and often extended across county boundaries. The 27 Poor Law Unions in the counties of Northern Ireland are listed below. For details of the records which have survived for each Union, researchers should consult the grey calendars, which are available on the shelves of the Public Search Room. BG1 Antrim, Co Antrim BG2 Armagh, Co Amragh BG3 Ballycastle, Co Antrim BG4 Ballymena, Co Antrim BG5 Ballymoney, Co Antrim BG6 Banbridge, Co Down BG7 Belfast, Cos Antrim and Down BG8 Castlederg, Co Tyrone BG9 Clogher, Co Tyrone BG10 Coleraine, Co Londonderry BG11 Cookstown, Co Tyrone BG12 Downpatrick, Co Down BG13 Dungannon, Co Tyrone BG14 Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh BG15 Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh BG16 Kilkeel, Co Down BG17 Larne, Co Antrim BG18 (Newtown) Limavady, Co Londonderry BG19 Lisburn, Co Antrim BG20 Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh BG21 Londonderry, Co Londonderry BG22 Lurgan, Co Armagh BG23 Magherafelt, Co Londonderry BG24 Newry, Co Down BG25 Newtownards, Co Down BG26 Omagh, Co Tyrone BG27 Strabane, Co Tyrone BG28 Gortin, Co Tyrone (united to Omagh c 1870) IMPORTANT - most of these records are closed for 100 years from the latest date in each volume Alex Hughes >from Ayrshire, Scotland Searching for Duncan,Bruce,Kilpatrick,Campbell,Fairley,Milne,McKechan, Jamphray,Strathern,Kelso,Smith & Auld in Scotland Searching for Hughes, Graham, McCutcheon, Donaghy, Irvine, Dorian, Kelley & Black in Ireland ----------End of Original Message----------