RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => London and Middlesex => Topic started by: kathhale on Thursday 09 September 10 14:39 BST (UK)
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Hello Everyone,
I have found an ancestor of mine, ADOLPHUS HALE,in the Greenwich union workhouse.
He seems to have been in and out of the workhouse over fifty times in a four year period.
What really puzzles me is that the times for admission and discharge are given for the same day.
For example 1st April admitted 7.00 discharged same day 7.52
18Th April admitted 7.00 discharged same day 8.30
20Th April admitted 7.00 discharged same day 7.52
All the entries are in the same vein.
Has anyone any idea why this was and also was this usual ?
Any ideas greatly appreciated
kath
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Perhaps he just went for a meal, or a bath??
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They are the only things I could think of too but was not sure this happened.
Sometimes it says he has no address and at others it gives an address and his wives name and at others it just gives an address and employment as a labourer
Thank you
kath
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on a light hearted note perhaps it was when the pubs were shut !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
trevor
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more than likely !
His wife probably would not let him in his home so he would go to the workhouse !
kath
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for a game of darts or dommies to pass the time poor old soul he,d have been better off with the salvation army at least he,d have got a cuppa tea and a bun , great people in the sally army .
trevor
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Thanks Trevor.
I have great memories of the Church Army as a g aunt of mine ran away to london and joined them . I used to visit her at the homes for the homeless she used to help out at.
I often feel the church army gets overlooked or confused with the salvation army.
See what you have done ? We are totally off topic now !
Adolphus Hale had many reasons for hitting the bottle,if he did do that as his father killed his mother then killed himself must have been hard for a son to take
Thanks Trevor
kath
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they were very hard times back then and if it hadn,t been for such organisations doing there best it would have been harder still god bless them all , your revelation of adolphouses childhood is a case in point who,s there to pick up the pieces no one could blame him for going off the rails
trevor
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Workhouses were the A & E department of their day. He may have checked in to get an ailment treated.
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Thanks Nick,
did not know that people did that.
kath
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Unless you had money and could pay for a doctor and hospital treatment, workhouses were the only other place to be treated, if you were sick. My g.g. grandfather died in the workhouse (Greenwich Union Workhouse) as a patient with TB in 1866 - his family paid the workhouse for him to be there.
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... and assuming that the workhouse we're talking about in the one at 48 Vanbrugh Hill, Greenwich, it was also an infirmary. My wife's grandfather was born there in 1916 ... his mother apparently using *her* mother's maiden name.
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Yes, that's the one. The site later became St Alfege's hospital, which was demolished to make way for the Greenwich District Hospital (now also demolished). My father died in the Greenwich District Hospital in 1983, completely oblivious to the fact that his g. grandfather had died within 150 yards of the spot, 117 years earlier.
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Thank you so much everyone,
I had completely forgotten that Workhouses were also hospitals.
I will google Greenwich workhouse and see what information comes up
Thanks for everyones input,really appreciated
Kath ;)
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http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Greenwich/Greenwich.shtml
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Thank you ! ;D
Really informative site .
kath
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Incidentally, I have been inside those buildings - I was treated in St Alfege's Hospital as a child in the early 1950's - this would have been only 5 to 10 years or so after it became an NHS hospital, and it was a dismal place.
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I think one hears such dismal stories about the workhouses it is difficult for me to understand my my ancestor,ADOLPHUS HALE b1859,kept going back.
He had ten children and brothers and sisters who from the 1911 census were not destitute why did he choose to use the workhouse for regular visits rather than his family
Over fifty times in four years ,between 1910 and 1914,seems excessive to me,why did he not just stay there ?
For at least the first year his wife was living else were,108 Grove street,just dawned on me as I typed the address the workhouse was at Grove Park,so Grove street was perhaps close by. Blackhorse road is also given once as an address.
kath
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Maybe he had a medical problem that needed repeated treatment ? Let's not forget that there were no antibiotics in those days, so diseases which are cured in no time at all today were a real problem then.
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Glad I could be of assistance! - don't forget that if you inquire at the Metropolitan Archives, you could probably find out *why* he was admitted...
Richard
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Richard ,the dates and times of admittance and discharge are all that was on the record at metropolitan archives so I do not think I will ever find out
It could have been a medical problem but his older brother was a DRUGGIST surely he would have gone to him they lived close enough.
The more I think about it the more I think he was either shunned by his family or he himself cut himself off from them. Perhaps he did have a form of dementia
We find out so much about our ancestors but we always want to find out more
kath