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Geneageek: Workhouse Call

Sunday 17 January 2010

Workhouse Call

Read 1st part here and 2nd part here.

It took some time (and a bit of money) for me to find the right George PALMER's death certificate. I am now quite sure this is the correct one as the age, occupation and location fit.

George Palmer's death certificate - 29th October 1896

After an eventful life, George died in Westminster Union Workhouse. How did he end up there?
Note that George died of 'Senile Decay'. Does this mean I have another lunatic on my hands?
Ancestry UK now has London Poor Law records available to view online. I searched the Westminster Union 'Register of Lunatics', which thankfully has a surname index and found there were no PALMER lunatics between the years of 1890 and 1898.
Unfortunately the 'Admission and Discharge Book' does NOT have a surname index. Using George's date of death, I found his 'discharge' (death).

October 1896 Westminster Union Workhouse 'Admission and Discharge Book'
George died on Thursday, October 29th 1896. His last meal was breakfast and his diet was described as 'class 2' (The Workhouse site explains the class of diet from 1900 onwards but I have yet to find a key to the Westminster Union classes in 1896).
The 1891 census for Westminster Union Workhouse contains a George Palmer of the same age, occupation and county of birth as mine.
George PALMER on the 1891 census in Westminster Union Workhouse


Presuming the George on the 1891 census is mine (the town of birth is listed as Winchester, Hampshire whereas all the other information that I have, states that George was born in Portsea, Hampshire), I have a window of 10 years in which to search for his admission.
Considering there is no surname index, this is a bit of a tedious task as I have to trawl through each page in the book for his surname - wish me luck!

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dying of "Senile Decay" means that George died of old age, and possibly had age-related dementia

22 January 2010 at 15:42  
Blogger GeneaGeek said...

Thankyou Anon, I am aware of this but a lot of my other ancestors who died of senile decay spent some time in the lunatic asylum - which is why I wondered if I had another lunatic on my hands.
In George's case perhaps his senile decay put him in the workhouse hospital where I may have been able to find more information.

21 March 2010 at 09:38  

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