Tracing Your Pauper Ancestors

A practical and informative guide for family historians interested in researching their British ancestry through social welfare records.

Many family historians will come across direct links to ancestors who were affected by poverty. Yet despite the burgeoning interest in genealogy, the history of pauperism and of poor relief has rarely been written about. Tracing Your PauperAncestors provides a guide to documents and records that family researchers can use to trace their pauper ancestors.

Author Robert Burlison gives a vivid account of poverty and the poor in the United Kingdom, discussing its causes, the many forms of charitable relief, and the largely repressive Poor Laws. He identifies relevant records, indicates where they can be found, and offers essential advice on how this information can be used to piece together the lives of distant and not so distant relatives.