Two parts of Wales feature in a project unearthing what life was like for the poor in 19th Century Britain.
The scheme, launched by the National Archives, looks at Llanfyllin in Powys and Cardiff.
About 250 volunteers nationwide will catalogue more than 100,000 pages of documents from 22 Poor Law Unions, which catered for the impoverished.
The National Archives said the information would tell tales of family breakdown, greed and corruption.
The records will eventually be placed on the website, and the archive said it would be useful for local and family historians.
It is estimated about 80% of the population of England and Wales in the mid-1800s would have been affected by the Poor Law Unions.
'Huge growth'
The law was a system of social security, and led to many workhouses being built throughout Britain.
Yet despite their historic value much of what exists in the files remains a mystery as they are poorly catalogued and underused, said the National Archives.
"While the 19th Century saw a huge growth in Britain's economy and industrial capacity, not everyone shared the material benefits," said Dr Paul Carter of The National Archives.
"These are the kind of records that will help researchers, whether a family historian or an academic, answer the question of what life was like for these people."
Cardiff began the 19th Century with a population of only a couple of thousand. By the 1850s it was over 18,000 and by the turn of the 20th Century it was more than 160,000.
Cardiff Poor Law Union consisted of 45 parishes when it was set up in 1836, according to official records.
A workhouse was built on Cowbridge Road in Canton in 1839. The building was eventually taken over by the NHS in 1948 and became St David's Hospital.
Llanfyllin Poor Law Union was formed in 1837 and had responsibility for about 20 parishes.
The town's workhouse later became a home for the elderly and closed in 1982.
It is now the subject of a conservation project.
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