[4qd-bannvalley] Fleming / Hastings / Craig / Maxwell / Cassidy

[4qd-bannvalley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (William Scott)]

Hi Monica

>what would they =A0have been the Board of Guardians to?
This would have been the Board of Guardians for Poor Law Relief which
oversaw the running of the workhouses for the poor and destitute of the
area. In the early 1840s, a workhouse was built in most major towns and
catered for the sick and destitute of an area called the "Union".There =
were
workhouses in Coleraine, Ballymoney, Magherafelt Ballymena, to name a =
few.
These towns also  became the centres for registration of Births, Deaths =
and
marriages. The poor law Unions covered areas which paid no heed to =
parish or
county boundaries, so genealogists need to be careful about registration
details in relation to the location of an individual eg most townlands =
of
Tamlaght O'Crilly Co Lderry Parish BMDs were registered in Ballymoney, =
Co
Antrim. Other TLs of the parish were reg. in Magherafelt! Residents of
Kilrea regd in Coleraine.The mid 1840s saw the beginning of the potao =
famine
when effects from starvation and fever saw the workhouses filled to
overflowing and Emigration increased.
William Scott