Maisie, Thank you for the Mitchell Library info which is very useful. I have a few that need researching. Although if you have a lot, it might pay to engage a professional researcher, whom I assume would include the cost of copies in their fee. We also need to keep in mind that poorhouse care was not always a sign of extreme poverty on the part of the applicant. Sometimes it signaled that the existing family could not provide full-time care for a seriously ill or senile parent. We all like to picture families as a working dad, a stay-at-home mom and children at school, but this was unlikely to be the case in 19th century Glasgow. Everyone in the family who could work, did work. There was seldom someone with the time to sit with an elderly relative all day. The lack of one wage could mean the difference between paying the rent or being evicted. Jo-Ann On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Maisie Egger <[email protected]>wrote: > For years I held off researching my mother's Brown family, figuring the > name would be as hard to find as a Smith. O ye of little faith, because > once I began it wasn't so hard. > > I decided to see what I could find out about my mother's great-great > grandfather Andrew Brown (1816-1882) further to what Lanark lister Jim > Bundy found for me a few years ago. On a hunch I contacted the Mitchell > library, Glasgow, and bingo! Poor soul as Andrew Brown is yet another > weaver who ended up in the City Poorhouse, Glasgow. > > The archivist at the Mitchell could not have been more helpful, and > responded to my latest correspondence by return. There is no charge for > search but there is a charge of £11 for copies of documents. > > I'm including the information from the archivist as it could encourage > others on the list to follow up on a "hard" name, such as Brown. > > As for confidentiality re the names: My mother, siblings and others are > now dead and so they would not be "annoyed" that I found out that their > forebears ended up in the poorhouse! As an aside, some of my mother's > siblings thought they were "it," especially the one who attended the > University of Glasgow and would be somewhat critical of the Glesga patter, > or speech pattern! I wonder if she ever knew that her forebears were > "clients" in the poorhouse. No oral stories passed down on this part of > the family history. > > Maisie > >

Hi Maisie and Jo Ann, If you go to Des Garrity's website I think he has a spiel about the Poor Law records at the Mitchell. Des has over many years indexed the names in these registers, this index is held by the Mitchell so it would most probably be a case of not so much matching a name as matching a spouse, dates, an address or a list of siblings to verify the right person. I believe he was not given permission to personally make the index available online. Regards Jenny Who will be taking up the opportunity to check this index in person at the Mitchell in May! -----Original Message----- From: Jo Ann Croft Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 6:27 AM Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Lanark] Mitchell library on Glasgow City Poorhouse records Maisie, Thank you for the Mitchell Library info which is very useful. I have a few that need researching. Although if you have a lot, it might pay to engage a professional researcher, whom I assume would include the cost of copies in their fee. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com