Cork City and County Archives holds the surviving archives for each of the 14 poor law unions in Cork .
Poor law unions and their workhouses were established by the Poor Law (Ireland) Act, 1838, as a response to widespread destitution, and each was governed by a Board of Guardians. Minute books, recording the proceedings of meetings are the largest series of poor law records that survive, however workhouse registers, financial accounts and correspondence and several other series also survive for some areas. Many subjects are recorded, such as the struggle to both fund and manage the workhouse and related services, attitudes to poverty, developments in public health provision, and the care of the infirm, the destitute, children, and the mentally ill. From the 1880’s, glimpses of the rise of nationalism may be found in some collections. (For information on workhouse/poor law records here relevant to family history and genealogy, see our genealogy pages)
CCCA holds all the surviving archives from Boards of Guardians in Cork city and county. See links below to detailed descriptive lists of the contents.
The BG records held are in hard copy only and may be accessed by appointment. We also provide a limited Enquiry Service.
BG 42 Bandon Board of Guardians (West Cork)
BG 43 Bantry Board of Guardians (South West Cork)
BG 59 Castletown Board of Guardians (South West Cork)
BG 65 Clonakilty Board of Guardians (West Cork)
BG 69 Cork Board of Guardians (Cork City and hinterland)
BG 83 Dunmanway Board of Guardians (West Cork)
BG 89 Fermoy Board of Guardians (North Cork)
BG 98 Kanturk Board of Guardians (North West Cork)
BG 108 Kinsale Board of Guardians (West Cork)
BG 115 Macroom Board of Guardians (West Cork)
BG 116 Mallow Board of Guardians (North Cork)
BG 118 Midleton Board of Guardians (East Cork)
For genealogical purposes, the most informative documents are those recording inmates (i.e. people admitted to the workhouse). These comprise indoor relief registers and related records, that record the name, address, occupation, age, sex, condition, date of admission/birth, and date of discharge or death of inmates.
We hold extensive inmate and related records for the following poor law unions/workhouses in Cork:
A small amount of inmate and related records are also available here for the following poor law unions/ workhouses in Cork;
For the other poor law unions/workhouses in County Cork, it is mainly administrative records that survive, such as minute books recording the proceedings of meetings of the board of guardians of each union. These will give information on what was happening in the workhouse/poor law union, but they only contain occasional and limited personal information about inmates. Minute books do record the names of officials and staff of the board/union/workhouse.
