Islington workhouse-St.John's road

[Bookbox]

I am looking for the records of the Islington Workhouse re the 1921 census that states my great grandmother, Maria Slatford, was a patient.

As explained above, the workhouse records are not held at the National Archives. They are held at the London Archives (formerly London Metropolitan Archives) - this is a different repository from the National Archives.

The admission/discharge registers for the Islington workhouse are on Ancestry. Maria Slatford, aged 68, was admitted to the workhouse on 4 May 1920 and sent to the Infirmary. There is no further information on her in this record.

She may have been admitted simply because of illness or disability rather than for homelessness or destitution. London workhouses and their infirmaries served as local hospitals for those who could not afford private medical care.

[coachcaptain]

Hi Bookbox.

Well thanks for the new info. Maria died in Feb 1926 but don't know if she was there all that time?

I to think it was due to illness as she still had children to help support her. I'll have to ask one of my friends to search Ancestry for more info then, or maybe even FindMyPast might have some as well?

I live in Australia so no hope of visiting, only online stuff, and this site is so helpful, used it over many years with different threads.

Thanks.

[jonwarrn]

The religious creed register is also on ancestry.
Maria Slatford, born 1852, admitted 4 May (1920) from H.H.I (Highgate Hill Infirmary),
creed Church of England, discharged OR (own request) 27.7.21

The A+D register with her discharge on the 27 July 1921 is there (she is transcribed by ancestry as Maud Stafford)

They have Boards Orders with Maria indexed (I think, from memory) on folio 167, but the microfilm runs out before the register does, and I'm not sure if ancestry have the rest of it up.

Once upon a time we could have seen it at home on FamilySearch, but they have now removed London records
St. John's Road Workhouse weekly admissions and orders of the board, March 1920 (from folio #115)-February 1921.

Ditto Highgate Hill Infirmary (though there are some records on ancestry, they may not go far enough?)

[jonwarrn]

Wow!
Creed Register attached.

[coachcaptain]

Hi jonwarrn.

Well what can I say but thanks a million for the 2 post replies about my ancestor. Amazing what info there is out there, just need the leads to find it eh? It's a shame it doesn't have the illness as well, but we can't have everything now can we? Regards the "discharge" info as stated on the Creed says "Dis Or" The column header states "Discharged or Dead" so why do you say "own request"? Is that what it really means? Just asking for clarification, hope you don't mind...

Once again many thanks for searching on my behalf, and I'll see what MyHeritage.com has to offer as I am a member of that site. If you happen to find any more info I'll be very grateful as well.

[jonwarrn]

Hi
I am pretty sure that's what OR means, or usually means, I think sometimes it is written out in full.

Ah! Bookbox is the authority on all this, and I hope they won't me quoting a post from an old thread here

It was absolutely standard practice for people to be transferred between institutions (schools, workhouses, infirmaries) within the same poor law union, as was appropriate for the pauper or convenient for the authorities.

OR = (Discharged at) Own Request.

I'm not sure if there will be anything about the illness in the Highgate records, but if ancestry have some earlier ones that are available it might be worth having a look see.

[coachcaptain]

Hi back and thanks for the detailed info, I now understand a lot more about all this than I did before, so between you and Bookbox I send my sincere thanks.

As they say, "the search goes on"