I would like to invite you to visit a new website called The POORHOUSE STORY at http://www.poorhousestory.com Note: This may be where you jump over your brick wall!!!! (See the Letter to Genealogists) It is meant to be a clearinghouse for information about 19th century American Poorhouses. Because I began my research in NYS, there is currently more information about NY than any other state. On the BROOME County page I have just included: 1) a scan of the information for your county from a report of an 1824 investigation into poor relief which resulted in the passage of a law requiring the establishment of county poorhouses. 2) a transcription of the information for your county from an 1857 state legislative investigation into conditions in county poorhouses 3) the identifiers for microfilm available from the NYS Archives which have copied individual INMATE REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES for all people who were inmates of the ALLEGANY County Poorhouse as of October 1875 and all those subsequently admitted between 1875 and 1920 4) a link to the BROOME County GenWeb page where poorhouse information has been posted Your comments are welcomed ... I am new at this web-publishing business <grin> ... and your comments are NEEDED. The site will only develop through the submissions of folks like you listers. Volunteers are also needed to transcribe existing information for posting. If you are interested in the historical or sociological implications of the poorhouse system, you will find TONS of info to explore (beginning with the HISTORY page). But if your interest is strictly genealogical, you may be most interested in the RECORDS page or the CEMETERY page -- as well as your own County page. Please do NOT respond to me through this list. (I would get FIRED and/or SUED by my ISP if I maintained subscriptions to all the e-mail lists to which I am posting this announcement!) Please respond off-list ... or I may miss your post. Happy Hunting! Linda Crannell (aka=The Poorhouse Lady)