On 6/17/2013 9:02 AM, Phil C. wrote: > On 17/06/2013 01:31, Ann Watson wrote: >> On 16/06/2013 7:22 AM, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: >>> A new series starts on ITVI on Tuesday June 25, made by Wall To Wall >>> Television, the same people who make Who Do You Think You Are? >>> >>> This will focus on celebrities who are horrified/shocked/appalled >>> (choose your >>> own phrase) to discover they had an ancestor who ended up in the >>> workhouse. >> >> I'd save "horrified/shocked/appalled" for discovering ancestors who >> ended up in the insane asylum! > > My grandfather did <shrug>. They weren't fussy about where they shoved > the helplessly disabled in those days. I do not like to believe that. I suspect that as today there are times when the family can not managed an firmed person, and public assistance is the only option. While today we find the Insane Asylum/Workhouse a horrid place, if you consider the alternatives that our ancestors were give, it was a very humane alternative. The could have given the person a chair in the woods, and let him died. At that time the family may have had numerous children in a house the consisted of one room, or a couple of rooms and a loft. Some of what they consider large houses, today would be considered small and large enough only for a young couple, or someone retired; if consider large enough to be considered a house. I have a 2nd great grand mother who the family had to put into an insane asylum. The family was stressed by young children (8 with six under 10 during that period) and had financial concerns. However as soon as they could the she was brought home to her daughter's house and spent the last several years of her life there. I doubt very much if "They weren't fussy about where they shoved the helplessly disabled in those days."