While the numbers of people entering the workhouse during the Famine remained high, there were other peaks for admittance. For example, the records of the early 1860s show an increase in people entering and for many their circumstances mirrored those of two decades previous. The length of stay is of particular importance when analysing names and of those who entered the workhouse. Some spent longer periods there and a period of three months was in many cases a standard length of stay.
And there were some who were frequent visitors, using the workhouse for temporary respite from both the elements and when ‘begging’ and alms were not forthcoming in the local community. Take for example a woman named Esther Carmichael who appears in the ‘Indoor Registers’ on multiple occasions in the 1860s and 1870s. Carmichael, born in 1829, entered the workhouse for short stays at different times of the year. Described as a beggar, she entered the workhouse with her children on a number of occasions, often for short periods, in an effort to survive the elements and at points of distress. On one occasion when they entered the children were described as being ‘dirty and covered with vermin’. As the years went by the Carmichaels became frequent visitors, particularly during the winter months.
