Quote:
Originally Posted by tenterfieldjulie
I am ashamed to say I understand very little about the poor law records .. I think your parish of birth had a responsibility for you if you couldn't look after yourself? Julie
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It was your parish of settlement, which is why the settlement examinations. This was often your parish of birth, but settlement could be acquired by serving an apprenticeship or renting a house for at least 7 years in another parish. A woman lost her own settlement rights on marriage and acquired her husband's, which could mean that if her husband abandoned her she was sent to some place at the back of beyond where she had never been before! Well, or told she was to be sent there - people often disappeared before they could actually be "removed".