Workhouse records searchable

Records revealing the plight of people in London workhouses as far back as the 17th century have been made fully searchable online.

Ancestry.co.uk has added 1.1 million further entries from Central and West London and 2.6 million records from South London to its existing Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records collection, taking the total to more than seven million.

Digitised from material held at London Metropolitan Archives, the collection reveals information about men, women and children residing in workhouses created and administered under the Poor Law Acts.

As well as the inmate’s name, age, date of admission and date of discharge, some entries also provide details of their condition or care.

Although the scans have previously been available on Ancestry as part of a separate browse-only set, this is the first time the images have been indexed and made searchable by name.

An Ancestry spokesperson told Who Do You Think Are? Magazine that records from East and North London would also be added in the near future.