You may think that you will not find much to interest you among poor law records unless your ancestors were paupers, but remember that many of these kinds of records concern not only the poor themselves. They include references to those who paid, collected and doled out the poor rates, the masters who took on pauper apprentices, the men who fathered illegitimate children, the men and women who worked in the nineteenth century workhouses, etc.
In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act made radical changes to the way that assistance to poor people was organised. For the purposes of research you need to consider whether you are dealing with the system before or after 1834.
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