Erie County Poor House Ledgers

Title

Erie County Poor House Ledgers

Description

The Erie County Poorhouse of Buffalo, NY and succeeding institutions known as the Erie County Alms House, Erie County Hospital, and Erie County Home & Infirmary, operated as a social safety net for the region's poor and infirm. From 1851 to 1926, the Poorhouse was located on Main Street in Buffalo, the current site of the University at Buffalo's South Campus.

The collection consists of 15 ledgers recording children “bound out”/adopted (1863-1868), intake registers (children 1829-1841-1852, adults/families 1829-1845, 1861-1864, 1871-1889, 1908-1923), and hospital and death registers (1854-1867,1897-1952). 

See the finding aid for more information.
An index for the records can be found here.

Collection Items

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 1. Register of Persons received at the Erie County Poor House from January 8, 1829 to August 5, 1844
Includes children and adults. Name, age, place of nativity, town/county pauper or vagrant, date of commitment, by whom committed (can be a city sexton, justice of the peace, or doctor), town sent from, date committed, and date discharged. Discharge…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 2. [Children Record] Children Bound Out by Erie County Superintendents of the Poor, 1863-1868
Includes name, date of commitment, date of discharge, who took them out and where they were taken. In chronological order, includes alphabetical index.

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 3. Register of Children’s Names in the Pauper Asylum, November 1841-September 1852.<br /><br />
Date received, name, age, names of parents, nativity (place of birth/ethnicity), how discharged & to whom. Each October 1st, the children currently residing in the Alms House were listed as “carried forward” into the new record keeping year. Parents’…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 4. Register of Persons Received at the Erie County Poor House, October 1, 1861-October 1, 1864
Includes name, age, nativity, gender, date of commitment and by whom, cause of commitment, death, date of discharge, and number of days in the institution. Identifies individual as pauper, vagrant, insane, idiot, and orphan. In chronological order,…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 5. Register of Persons Received at the Erie County Alms House, October 1, 1871-October 1, 1873
Includes name, age, nativity, gender, occupation, date of commitment and by whom, cause of commitment, death, date of discharge, notes about disposition, and number of days in the institution. Identifies individual as pauper, vagrant, insane, idiot,…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 6. (Book B) Register of Persons Received at the Erie County Alms House, 1872-1873 [1874]
October 1, 1872 – December 31, 1872

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 7. Register of State Paupers in the Erie County State Alms House at Buffalo, NY, December 1873-September 24, 1889
Includes name, date of admission, sex, age, birth place, cause of pauperism, location committed from, committing officer*, complaining officer*, discharge date, bound out date, provided for—by adoption or otherwise, absconded, transferred, removed…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 8. Register of Persons received at the Erie County Alms House, January 1, 1908-December 31, 1923
Includes name, age, nativity, occupation, gender, pauper, vagrant, by whom committed, date of commitment and of what town, direct cause of commitment, transferred to and returned from hospital, died, date of discharge [or death], remarks (where…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 9. Hospital Register of the Erie County Alms House, October 1, 1854 – Oct<br /><br /> 1867
Name, age, nativity, habits (temperate, intemperate), occupation, disease, time under treatment in days, stage of disease when admitted, date discharged, date cured, date died, remarks (notes on condition, cause of death, sent to Sisters of Charity…

Erie County Poor House Ledgers, Volume 10. Records of Deaths at the Erie County Hospital, January 1, 1897-April 7, 1928
Can include name, age, gender, nativity, occupation, date of death, date of burial, number of grave, cause of death, case number, remarks on death and disposition (taken by relatives, body given to Medical College or undertaker, or buried in Mount…
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  • Erie County Poor House Ledgers

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