North Witchford Union Workhouse, civil parish Doddington

[MudgeeClarke]

Hello All:

juliejtp gave me an excellent lead regarding a 'possible' for my Brickwall, Richard Clarke.

Sunday, June 6th, 1841, a Richard Clarke, aged 10, Labourer's Child, born in the county Cambridgeshire, is in the census record for North Witchford. I don't see any reference to his mother or father in that place.

Although I have searched several sites, and read the excellent general Workhouse.org website, it seems that North Witchford does not have a lot of remaining records - 'signing in' or 'signing out' registers, for example.

As I cannot see Eliza HANCOCK/CLARKE at North Witchford, and she was recorded as 'dead' bef. 1856, I thought it may be useful to find a death record for her before 1841, or some lead, through Workhouse documents, where in the Shire Richard was born.

Is anyone aware of an archive resource for North Witchford Workhouse?

Cheers, Colin

 

[juliejtp]

Hi Colin,

Have a look on the Genuki site they have information for all records covering the UK searchable by county.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/

 

[darkcrystal]

Colin,

try here

http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/cambs/north_witchford_workhouse.htm

 

[hammers252]

Hi Mudgee Clarke,

I have just joined this forum as i came across this post when googling for the North Witchford workhouse. I havent found any info on it but noticed that you have the name Hancock in your list. I too have Hancocks who came from Corsham, Wiltshire, UK. They married one of my Gotobed ancestors.
Is there any connection?

best wishes
Gill

 

[MudgeeClarke]

Hello Gill:

Welcome to this forum. I am a newcomer myself and find it a good place with friendly members and very engaged moderators who will help with suggestions etc.

As for HANCOCK. If you see all my various posts and threads, starting out with maybe http://www.forum.familyhistory.uk.com/showthread.php?t=7793, you will find that I am almost completely in the dark about my Hancock line, except that my GGF reported that his mother was Eliza HANCOCK.

In the thread I mentioned above, you'll see I tracked a couple of deaths around North Witchford but I can't be sure (yet) about any being Eliza HANCOCK. (or the young Richard CLARKE at the workhouse being my GGF.)

I wish I had the definitive book of HANCOCK's for you (and me).

Best of luck,

Colin

 

[hammers252]

Hi Colin,

Ill take a look then, thank you. I am new to the name Handcock/Hancock in my tree. Someone else has done all the spadework about them for me in the past. If you do find out more then i will happily share all my pedigree about them.

Happy searching

Gill

 

[benny1982]

Hi

I hope that you can find some workhouse records for Richard Clarke as they contain quite a bit of info including ages, address, occupation, reason for admittance and often they give a marital status. The admission dates may mention the discharge date so you can go straight to them.

Ben

 

[MudgeeClarke]

Thanks for your kind wishes, Ben.

Alas, from what I have seen so far, it appears the records for that period at North Witchford Workhouse are not to be found. Plenty of photographs of the buildings, and some later era records, but none for that decade or so of my particular interest.

I hope they are tucked away in some local repository and eventually surface on the web. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.

Cheers,

Colin

 

[benny1982]

Hi

Things do make us wonder whether the records that we really need such as workhouse record or lost census returns are stuck away deep in some vault 3 floors down below ground level in a London government building waiting to be discovered.

Photos can help bring a workhouse to life as well.

Ben