Minute books, accounts ledgers, reports, and ancillary material relating to the creation, administration, and eventual dissolution of Tullamore Union from its establishment in 1839 to the closure of Tullamore Workhouse in August 1921. The main set of records are the minute books of the boards of guardians, comprising 112 volumes from an original set of 128 volumes. Other material is financial in nature, such as the treasurer’s account books and rates returns. No workhouse admission and discharge registers survive, but an important volume entitled Application and Report Book from 1862/1863, provides details of the relief applications for approximately 500 applicants. Other workhouse material is in the form of provisions registers and daybooks, as well as an architectural drawing of alterations to the Infirmary at the workhouse. As the Board of Guardians also oversaw the dispensary districts in the union, there is a set of minute books relating to the five dispensary districts with accompanying district notices in poster form.
Tullamore UnionMinute books, accounts ledgers, reports, workhouse registers, and ancillary material relating to the creation, administration, and eventual dissolution of Parsonstown Union from its establishment in May 1839 to its dissolution in 1925. The union’s Board of Guardians were responsible for overseeing several functions of local government; primarily the care of the poor, including the setting up, financing and running of the workhouse, the creation of dispensary districts, assisted migration and outdoor relief.
The main set of records are the minute books of the Boards of Guardians, comprising 97 volumes. Other material is financial in nature, such as the financial minute books and repayment of relief account book. Three registers of the Parsonstown (Birr) workhouse survive; 1842-1843, 1849-1850 and loose pages from a 1912 registers. As the Board of Guardians also oversaw the dispensary districts in the union, there is a ledger relating to their activities, as well as a copy of the lease for the Kinnitty dispensary residences.
Parsonstown Union’s area of operation covered 234 square miles from two counties: from Offaly (King’s County) – Banagher, Drumcullen, Eglish, Ferbane, Frankfort, Kilcoleman, Kinnety, Lemanagan, Letter, Lusmagh, Seirkyrans, Parsonstown, Shannon Bridge, Shannon Harbour and Tissarin. From County Tipperary – Aglishcloghane, Ballingarry, Dorha, Lockeen, Lorha and Uskeane.
Parsonstown (Birr) Poor Law Union
This is a large set of records which broadly reflects the evolution of local authority health and welfare provision in Offaly. It contains minutes of committees established to oversee public health and public assistance, as well as administrative records detailing the admission and discharge of individuals into the County Home or the County Hospital. While the bulk of the records derived from the County Board of Health, there are a few outlying records from 1912-21 relating to transitional periods in the health service, or where registers were taken over from the preceding health system and incorporated into the new Board of Health. Likewise some county home and county hospital administrative records, particularly admission and discharge registers and financial ledgers which were kept by record-creators in an unbroken series, post-date the County Board of Health's executive function which ceased in 1942.
RECORDS RELATING TO MOTHER AND BABY HOMES AND BOARDED-OUT CHILDREN:
The main series of records which record unmarried mothers and/or decisions relating to the boarding-out of children are to be found in the Public Assistance Minute Books (Series 3) and the Admissions and Discharge registers for the County Home (Series 5).
While Offaly did not have a designated ‘Mother and Baby Home,’ the records show that unmarried mothers were regularly admitted to the County Home to give birth until the late 1940s, many staying for a significant period of time in the home with their children. In some instances, both mother and child were transferred from the home after the birth to other institutions such as Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, or Manor Home, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.
From the late 1940s, it appears that unmarried mothers were either admitted directly to institutions in other counties (these records are held by other bodies) or transferred from the County Home to mother and baby homes outside Offaly before or after giving birth (these instances, which are infrequent from the late 1940s are recorded in the county home registers in this collection). Children entered in the registers of the county home are recorded as having been born there, or have been transferred into the county home from another institution before being 'placed' or 'boarded-out' in Offaly. It is possible to trace children by surname, noting the limitations of the records in terms of completeness and the date span.
In general terms and from an overview of the records, the incidence of names of unmarried mothers and their children decreases significantly over time. This is most likely due to unmarried mothers from Offaly entering institutions outside the county before the birth of their children. By the 1950s, there are only sporadic instances of births to unmarried mothers and of 'boarded-out' children recorded in the county home registers. This particular record series ends in 1957.
Offaly County CouncilOnly 10 minute books survive as records of Edenderry Union covering the years 1879-1919, with many large gaps. There are no extant workhouse registers, registers of deaths, workhouse ledgers, outdoor relief registers, or registers of accounts.
A further known minute book from 1895, which was rescued from the workhouse following its demolition in 1976 and is now in private hands, has been transcribed by Dr Ciaran Reilly in an article ‘The minute book of Edenderry Poor Law Union, 1895’ in Offaly Heritage, Vol. 7 (Tullamore, 2013)
The minutes contain the proceedings of the meetings of the boards of guardians and contain reports from the clerk of the union, the master of the workhouse, the sanitary officers and others.
Edenderry UnionCopies of outgoing letters from John V. Brown, clerk of Parsonstown Union to various recipients, particularly the Poor Law Commissioners, detailing reliefs and works. Also includes copy outgoing correspondence relating to assisted emigration schemes for inmates of the Parsonstown workhouse during the course of the Great Famine.
Parsonstown (Birr) Poor Law Union