In the recent Legacy News e-newsletter from Legacy Family Tree,[1. The free newsletter contains information on genealogy topics from a variety of authors, as well as news about Legacy Family Tree software and webinars. You can subscribe by clicking here.] Canadian genealogist Lorine McGinnis Schulze wrote about finding a removal order for her fifth great-grandfather Thomas Blanden. “Removal orders were new to me so after ordering the documents… I did my homework and researched the history of Removal Orders.”[2. Lorine McGinnis Schulze, “Finding and Understanding Removal Orders in England,” Legacy Family Tree, Legacy News, 19 October 2016 (http://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2016/10/finding-and-understanding-removal-orders-in-england.html : accessed 28 October 2016), paras. 2 and 3.]
Schulze was modeling what all of us should do when we encounter a genealogical source that’s new to us. Schulze was researching on The National Archives website, which has a magnificent set of online research guides. She could also have used one of the many guides to English research, such as Mark Herber’s Ancestral Trails, where poor relief, settlement, and parish records are discussed in Chapter 18.[3. Mark Herber, Ancestral Trails, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004).]
An excellent starting point for learning about any kind of record is the FamilySearch Research Wiki. Removal orders are discussed in the wiki article “England and Wales Poor Law Records Pre-1834.”[4. “England and Wales Poor Law Records Pre-1834,” FamilySearch Research Wiki (https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/England_and_Wales_Poor_Law_Records_Pre-1834#Settlement:_Certificates.2C_Examinations.2C_and_Removal_Orders : accessed 28 October 2016).] The wiki article provides guidance on finding records related to poor relief, including links to The National Archives, resources for English county-level records, and resources available from the FamilySearch website and the Family History Library.
