Workhouse records

McKanna

Hi there,

I am researching my ancestor Mary Dill. She moved to the USA from Scotland, but we've never been able to connect her across the pond. Family lore says she was raised in the poorhouse with her father before coming to the USA to be a servant. My questions is this: have any of you had luck finding workhouse records?

Thanks!

Adrian Bruce1

The best introduction to Workhouses / Poorhouses in the British Isles is the site created by Peter Higginbotham on https://www.workhouses.org.uk/intro/

I've never looked at what it has for Scotland before but https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Scotland/ seems like a starting point. From there, you can get to https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Scotland/UnionsScotland.shtml which lists the Scots poorhouses (the usual term in Scotland, apparently). In the best case, the page for a poorhouse gives a history, an indication of what records exist and where, etc.