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Poor Houses, Poor Law information for County Offaly (Kings) and places above it in the hierarchy

County Offaly (Kings)

Ireland

General Information

The Workhouse website gives an overview of Poor Law & Workhouses in Ireland, together with information about some individual workhouses includes history, maps & photographs.

PRONI (Belfast) has produced an online downloadable leaflet outlining the Poor House records that they hold covering Northern Ireland.

A number of workhouses have re-opened as Heritage Centres and Museums giving an insight into life in the Workhouse,

Records

  • Scanned images of the Index to those who applied for admission into the Belfast Workhouse between 1892 & 1921 are available online from PRONI (Belfast).  To view/download these images, search the PRONI Catalogue for PRONI Ref: "BG/7/GK/1".   This index shows names & ages, together with a reference number. 
  • Manuscript: Poor Rate Collection books for the Celbridge Poor Law Union,1855  at NLI Dublin.

Other Online Resources

Publications

  • The Workhouses of Ireland by John O’Connor Anvil 1995
  • The Poor Law and the workhouse in Belfast, 1838-1948 by Michael Farrell, PRONI, 1978.
  • The Establishment of poor-law unions in Ireland 1838-43  by Gerard O'Brien.
  • The poor law in Ireland 1838-1948 by Virginia Crossman. 2006.
  • Derry and the Irish Poor Law by Patrick Durnin, Waterside Community Local History Group ,1991

UK and Ireland

  • Peter Higginbotham's comprehensive The Workhouse website provides a wealth of information about Workhouses, the Poor Law and related issues.catalogue
  • If you are looking for someone who was in a workhouse, it is worth checking if they also appear in the Quarter Sessions records, held in County Record Offices - see the British Library's Discovery catalogue (use Advanced Search and select "Search Other Archives"). 
  • You can search and freely download documents of a number of Poor Law Unions across England and Wales from TNA.
  • Settlement Examinations in England and Wales - a detailed explanation, from LDS Familysearch, based on an article by Anthony Camp.