James Begley / Biglay

[nelmit]

There was no production at The Mitchell when I went there yesterday (no staff to bring the records) but I couldn't find an application for James in the index anyway.

However looking over your post I'm not sure I tried all the variations of his surname so I'll look again next time and try something else.

Regards,
Annette

[donnab]

Hello Annetta:

Thanks again Annetta, appreciate the help. Can't help much with your Scottish search but if you search ever brings you to Canada I'll be happy to help.

Donna

[donnab]

Hello Annette:

Thanks for the offer, please don't go to the trouble of seaching for the poor house application for James Begley, I got a reply from the Mitchell Library, I had written them some time ago and they have confirmed that there is no application for James. I've copied the e-mail below, I had sent them a copy of his certificate of death with my letter confirming his death at the poorhouse, but it appears that his application if he did complete one did not survive. But thanks again for your kind offer to help. I'll have to figure out another way to confirm that he is the same James Begley I've been looking for, I'm sure he is but I would still like to confirm, maybe service records.

Donna



Thank you for your letter regarding the poor relief records of James Begley.

There are certainly no details of James Begley's time in the poorhouse on any of his mother's applications (ref D-HEW14/38 No.28529; D-HEW10/3/17 No.184 and D-HEW10/3/2 No.230), but as he was an adult, I wouldn't really have expected him to be mentioned.

The index of poor relief applications is made up of the suriving applications that we hold and I have searched the index for all the different spellings of Begley that I can think of (Isabella is listed as Beggly, Bigley and Begley). This would suggest that either James did not make an application for poor relief and was therefore maybe taken into the poorhouse at the very last minute, or he made an application which does not survive. Barnhill Poorhouse is the poorhouse for Barony parish. We hold two series of records for Barony parish for around that time period - general registers of the poor (ref D-HEW13) and registers of applications (ref D-HEW14). There are gaps in both series of records in the years preceeding the death of James Begley and it is likely that his application is in one of these missing volumes.

We do offer a research service for the poor relief applications and charge £10.30 per application which includes the costs of research, copying and postage. However, we have exhausted all possibilities for James.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any further questions.

[nelmit]

Thanks for the update Donna. What a shame the application appears to be missing.

Regards,
Annette