Roscommon and Strokestown Workhouse Records

Michael:

See the two links below. Looks like you need to contact the Co. Roscommon library to see what records are available for the two workhouses.

Roger McDonnell

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Roscommon/

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Strokestown/

If it is of any general help, I can explain what records the workhouses may have, if they have survived. The personal information routinely recorded over the years varied slightly but, as an example, in 1891 the Admission records contained the following:

1. Number
2. Names and surnames of paupers
3. Sex
4. Age
5. If adult, whether single, married, widower or widow; if child whether orphan, deserted or bastard.
6. Employment or calling
7. Religious denomination
8. If disabled, the description of disability
9. Name of wife or husband
10. Number of children
11. Observations on pauper when admitted
12. Electoral District and townland in which resident
13. Date when admitted or born in the workhouse.
14.  Date when died or left the workhouse

1. Number means admission number.

2. Name of wife or children can sometimes include useful information eg “Gaol,” indicating he was in jail. Or “tramp” indicating he was living rough.

3. In my experience, the number of children relates to the number still dependant on the pauper (ie adult or deceased children would not be counted).

4. Children’s admission records are usually cross-referenced to the parent’s number.

5. Observation on admission was often left blank but can contain helpful information eg “delicate looking”, “admitted to hospital”, “very infirm & filthy” or “healthy”. (These examples taken from Magherafelt workhouse in 1873).

6. Electoral District and townland sometimes gets completed but is often just “Union at large” which might mean they were living rough or that the clerk simply didn’t record the townland.

7. Some workhouses recorded additional information eg in Limavady, Co Derry the Master kept a daily journal in which he recorded events that caught his attention eg deaths (with names, ages, townlands & cause of death), details of folk running away, details of cases where he exercised discretion and allowed an inmate to leave for the day without formally being discharged. (They were all free to be discharged if they wished. No-one was compelled to stay there, other than by economic circumstance or illness). Such entries can give useful little details such as: “Released to attend funeral. Returned drunk.”

8. All workhouses kept Minutes for the weekly Board of Guardians meetings. These minutes are the same as any modern business board meeting and focus on the numbers of inmates, finances, authorising the purchases eg food and drink, tools, clothing, illnesses in the infirmary (with comments on how to treat them, whiskey being often used) and the impact on the infirmary, decisions to hire or fire staff,  decisions to provide assistance for inmates to emigrate, and so on. Inmates are occasionally mentioned by name if something fairly significant had happened, but mostly the board focused on general management not on individual cases. They can still be worth reading to get an overall picture of life at that time (especially in the famine years) but there are a lot of them (52 meetings a year) and it takes a while to read them thoroughly.

9. Some workhouses kept outdoor relief records (ie relief for those not admitted eg soup kitchens) and some also kept vaccination records.

Thank you Roger and Elwyn.  I will contact the Roscommon County Library to see what they have available.  All the best, Michael.

For the interest of others following this conversation, here is part of the response that I have received from the Co. Roscommon Library.

"While we do hold some records relating to the Strokestown Workhouse our records are mainly administrative in nature and are not indexed or searchable.  We hold the Strokestown Board of Guardian Minute Books 1850 - 1921 in our Archives..."

There are no surviving Admission Registers for either Workhouse and the Minute Books for Strokestown are only digitised for a brief period from 1919 to 1921. The whole set of Minute books are held at the Library.