Mary Blake birth April 1846 in Charlestown, MA  Almhouse

Blake & Barry Connection

Mary Ann Blake  was born on April 24 1846 in the “Charlestown Almshouse”.

Her parents were John Blake b. abt. 1821 in Ireland and Mary Murphy Blake b. abt. 1828 Ireland.

She married John Leo Morgan on 15 June 1869

Link to actual record on Ancestry.com. 

You may need to be a member to access it.

http://tinyurl.com/b9wnqfv

Born Town of Charlestown   Place of Birth - Almshouse

Father John Blake, Mother Mary Blake

“Residence” Ireland for both (Place born)

Informant Charleston Almshouse

Almshouse – were the Blakes destitute?

There were 3 births listed in the Charlestown Almshouse over a short period of time.
Almshouses would did not take in able bodied men or women and provide them with shelter, food and clothing.
I believe that for a few years this Almshouse provided some local medical assistance through nurses on staff or midwifes and doctors on call.  It was moved and rebuilt in a new location in 1849 and it was recorded that the new building had a Hospital Ward

Below is an article nearly 50 years later on the rebuilt, now decrepit, Almshouse “For Aged Couples”

Boston Evening Transcript June 11, 1892

Front page article on the terrible care provided.

“Brutal Treatment Alleged by one of the Inmates

We then proceeded to the Charlestown almshouse. We found this to be an old, dilapidated building, which, as is well known, has served years as an almshouse in Charlestown and which the committee considers a disgrace to be used for that purpose by the city of Boston.”Front page article on the terrible care provided.

Link to full article http://tinyurl.com/bbg2p8a

These were collectively called at the time “Pauper Institutions”

1897 Picture of the rebuilt Charlestown Almshouse