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My 2x great-grandmother's life has been quite a mystery.

Ann Norah O'Brien
Birth ABT 1860 • England
Death 16 JAN 1923 • Exeter, Devonshire, England, United Kingdom

She went by the name Norah O'Brien.

1901 census

https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/16562936?h=72ff1d&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url

1911 census

https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/16562931?h=9b8cba&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url

She had 5 illegitimate children including my great-grandmother.

Francis Harold O'Brien
Birth 21 MAR 1894 • Barton Regis, Gloucestershire, England
Death Unknown

Winifred Lydia O'Brien
Birth 30 OCT 1896 • Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
Death 28 NOV 1979 • New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
great-grandmother

Dorothy Doris O'Brien
Birth JANUARY 1898 • Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
Death 19 APRIL 1986 • North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

John Edward Goode O'Brien
Birth 19 JAN 1900 • Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
Death 6 JUL 1965 • Gloucestershire, Gloucester, England

George Albert O'Brien
Birth 8 JUL 1901 • Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
Death 10 NOV 1946 • Gloucestershire, Gloucester, England

Marriage
28 Dec 1901 The register office, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
George Edward Goode

I ordered all of her children's birth certificates as well as her marriage certificate.

Her oldest son was born in the Bristol City workhouse. Does that mean he was born while she was working?

What can you tell me about these workhouses and how can I find records? What types of people worked in the workhouses and what were they for?

Also, Norah's birth date is a mystery. The only record I found in the GRO Index for that date range was for St Pancras, Middlesex. The father's name on the certificate is different from the name on her marriage certificate.

A good place to start researching workhouses is workhouses.org.uk. They have a page about Bristol Workhouse.

Bristol actually maintained two workhouses:

• The Clifton Union workhouse at 100 Fishponds Road, Eastville


• Stapleton Workhouse

The records of the Clifton Union Workhouse are held by Bristol Archives. Unfortunately, the details on your certificate show that you need the records for Stapleton Workhouse.

Although Bristol Archives does have some records and photographs for Stapleton Workhouse listed in their catalogue, they don't appear to have the patient records listed. According to the information on the workhouses.org website, these were virtually all destroyed by enemy action in 1940 (presumably during a bombing raid).

Stapleton Workhouse went to to become Manor Park Hospital, which is now called Blackberry Hill Hospital.

Since Norah was listed as a domestic servant, employed at 10 St James Parades, on Francis Harold's birth certificate, she clearly wasn't a workhouse employee but rather an inmate.

Have you traced Norah and her family through the earlier census records (1861 - 1891)? These may give some idea of when she moved from London to Stroud/Bristol. It may also give some clue about the reasons behind the confusion over her father's name (he may have died when she was very young, for example).