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Question: Can someone please help me with a Genealogical record explanation!?
I have access to HeritageQuest!.com and in looking at different spelling variations of my last name, I typed in Kotonic (instead of Katanic) and I found a record on the 1910 US Census--Allegheny/OHara Township that was titled Workhouse&Inebriate Asylum (Series T624, Roll 1296, Page 239) for a Frank Kotonic!.
Now, I am pretty sure that, since my last name is unusual, that this is the same man that was my father's uncle or grandfather or even great grandfather, but is the 'Workhouse&Inebriate Asylum' what we might know as being a 'Drunk Tank' in today's society and how can I find out what he might have been imprisoned for (where might I look for related records for this man)!?
Any answers are appreciated!.
Thanks!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Yes, I believe you are correct!.
"In response to a petition from the Board of Prison Inspectors of Allegheny county, who were concerned with the rising costs of maintaining prisoners at the county jail and the increasingly crowded conditions there, the state legislature, in 1866, authorized the construction of a workhouse in Allegheny County!. The Allegheny County Workhouse and Inebriate Asylum at Claremont (Blawnox) admitted its first inmates in 1869, two years before the buildings and wall were completed!. The workhouse was officially closed in 1971!."
It looks like the Pennsylvania State Archives has many of the records for the asylum:
"The records of the Allegheny County Workhouse consist of minute books of the Board of Managers, 1866-1971, 11 vols!.; oaths of officials, 1888-1912, 1 vol!.; visitors' records, 1871-80, 1 vol!.; account books, 1866-1940, 9 vols!.; and various population records (admission and discharge books, 1870-77, 3 vols!.; conduct books, 1870-1906, 1915-19, 8 vols!.; discharge and descriptive dockets, 1873-1971, 24 vols!.; daily sick call books, 1896-1940, 18 vols!.; escaped prisoners records, 1882-1971, 3 vols!.; hospital record books, 1913-39, 6 vols!.; prison registers, 1869-1951, 17 vols!.; punishment books, 1870-73, 1880-92, 1904-59, 7 vols!.; and hard labor registers, 1869-1971, 24 vols!.), 1869-1971, 110 vols!. Included are 11 annual reports (printed) partially covering the period 1873-99, and a typed manuscript entitled "Feeding of Inmates of Allegheny County Workhouse," by E!. W!. Tillotson, Jr!., and W!. A!. Hamor!."Www@QuestionHome@Com
People in a "Workhouse" back then were often what we call "Homeless" today!. They got a bed and meals, and had to work at civic improvements or farming to pay the state back!. They threw the drunks in there because they were not criminals!. Imagine those guys today doing 30 days for DWI, picking litter up along the side of the road, or painting the swing sets at the park!. 100 - 150 years ago they might have been your GG Uncle, only they were in the system because their bank failed or the crops took blight, not for anything they did!.
Women whose husband died and whose children had moved to California sometimes ended up there!. So did children whose mother died and whose father married someone 20 years younger, with great bazooms and no mercy, compassion or human kindness behind them!. That one happend in one line in my family!.Www@QuestionHome@Com