Tewksbury Almshouse Inmate Biographies

American and Canadian almshouse records from the 19th century have always been fruitful hunting grounds for information about immigrants from Ireland. I have previously written about Saint John Almshouse in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and now it is the turn of Tewksbury, located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Tewksbury Almshouse first opened in 1854 and quickly saw more admittals than the number it was built for.[1] Those who were admitted came from all over Massachusetts. What is very interesting about this institution is that detailed notes taken from a patient's intake interview have survived. Known as 'inmate biographies,' many of these are lengthy, detailed narratives that cover the person’s full life history, focusing on family relations, work, and health.[2]

The first phase of this digitization project has seen records from 1854 to 1883 come online, however, there are very few records from before 1860. There are currently records for approximate 40,000 individuals that can be viewed online. The final phase of digitization will see records added through the 1890s. There are records from after these years, but they will not be placed online. Some of the original records are at the Museum of Public Health in Tewksbury, while transcriptions of other original records, since destroyed, are available on microfilm at the Massachusetts State Archives. The digitized records come from both of these institutions. 

The records are heavily populated with immigrants from Ireland with the following example showing the genealogical gold they contain: [3]

Mary Stanley, inmate biography, 1873

Reg. No:              41109

Age:                     56

Name:                  Mary Stanley

From:                   Boston June 4 1873

Condition:           Well

Discharged:         June 24 1873

Removed:            Boston

By Whom:           Tupp [?]

For Nos:

56 b[orn] Ire[land] Co. Roscommon Land[ed] Quebec Ca[nada] May 15 1837 per Ship Emerald. Direct to Boston and resided in Boston since.  M[arrie]d Henry Stanley in Boston 1838. N.N. [?] No R[eal?]. Est[ate?] No taxes Laborer died Boston Jan[uary] 1856. Son Thomas Stanley stone mason resides #25 Northampton St. Daug[hter] Mary H[ouse?] w[i]f[e] of Benjamin Washington. #5 Smith's Court off Joy St. P[arents?] Richard and Ann O'Brien d[ied?] Ire[land]. Last lived rear of 383 Harrison Ave with Mrs Dayley. Says [she was] in no other inst[itution]. Officer Prouty [?] of Station 5 knows her. Rheum[atism?] In City Hosp[ital] 2 years ago. No M[oney?]. No Home.

As best that I can tell, the website on which this collection is hosted, University of Massachusetts Lowell Digital Initiatives, does not have a standalone database where you can search this collection. Instead, the search facility searches all digitized collections. However, all names from the Tewksbury Almshouse collection have been indexed.

You can read more about the collection here and access the records here. Browsing the records is also available, beginning here.

My thanks goes to R. Andrew Pierce, a professional genealogist in Boston, for telling me about this digitization project.

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[1] Meltsner, Heli. The Poorhouses of Massachusetts: A Cultural and Architectural History. Massachusetts: McFarland, 2012, pp. 32–33.

[2] Fisher, Joseph. 'Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record Collection at UMass Lowell,' Highlights. Boston Library Consortium (https://blc.org/special-highlights/tewksbury-almshouse-intake-record-collection-umass-lowell): accessed 19 February 2017.

[3] Tewksbury Almshouse, 'Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record: Stanley, Mary,' No. 41109, 4 June 1873; Digital Initiatives @ UML, University of Massachusetts Lowell Library (http://libhost.uml.edu/items/show/1807): accessed 19 February 2017.