What were working conditions of children like in Britain in the 1840s?

I was checking out the library edition of Ancestry.com for any newly added databases to bring to the attention of staff recently and came across the 1842 Commissioners’ report of children’s employment (appendix, trades and manufactures part 2) .  It is a very interesting document in that children and adults from all over the British isles have been interviewed about the working conditions children are being employed in.  Not only that but you get the child’s name, age, occupation, address of home and work and sometimes mention of other family members and pay rates.

Two children and a trolley laden with boxes, c.1928 Sir George Grey Special  Collections, Auckland Libraries.

The document has been name indexed so is searchable but there is also a name index at the end of the work as well.

If you are interested in social history, you will find this worth reading.  It is rather a lengthy tome but probably dipping in and out of the interviews would be enough to give a flavour of the document.

Marie Hickey

‘Irish townlands are a puzzle and a joy. We shouldn’t throw them away.’

'To foreigners, and direct marketers, Irish townlands can seem like something from Alice in Wonderland. Where in rural Ireland do people live? In a townland. What’s a townland? It’s a place where people in rural Ireland live. The recurrent complaint is that only the local postman understands the local place names. But why exactly should that be a problem?'

Historic map of Ireland 1797 by cartographer Daniel Augustus Beaufort.

'Wedding Wednesday' highlights a wedding portrait from the Heritage Images photograph collection and this week we are featuring Mr W Norman Heather and Miss Myrtle Chatfield of Auckland who were married in October of 1899.

This photograph of the bridal party was taken on the front steps of the Chatfield family home located in Bridgewater Road, Parnell.

Heather-Chatfield bridal party, 1899. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

The happy event was reported both in the Auckland Weekly News  27 October 1899 supplement as well as the 20 October 1899 edition of the New Zealand Herald which offers some lovely details about this special day.


Karen