{"id":11725,"date":"2022-03-28T11:09:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T09:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2022-03-29T10:54:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T08:54:15","slug":"how-to-find-old-orphanage-records","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/how-to-find-old-orphanage-records\/","title":{"rendered":"How to find old orphanage records"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jonathan Scott\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 28 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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How to find old orphanage records<\/h1>\n
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, shorter life expectancies meant many of our ancestors would have lost their parents in childhood \u2013 and many of them ended up being cared for in orphanages, which were often run by charitable organisations or religious groups. Other orphans were cared for in the workhouse<\/a>. Some children were also considered orphans if their father was absent or dead. \u00a0You can start tracing your ancestors\u2019 orphanage records with the help of these websites.<\/p>\n

The best websites for finding old orphanage records<\/h2>\n
1.\u00a0 Children\u2019s Homes<\/a><\/h3>\n
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This is an encyclopaedic resource of orphanage and children\u2019s home records from social historian Peter Higginbotham.<\/p>\n
You can use this website to hunt for orphanages by location or type, then read potted histories often illustrated by photographs and plans of buildings.\u00a0The categories include Salvation Army homes; Roman Catholic orphanages; Jewish orphanages; reformatories and remand homes; and Poor Law schools.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unmissable, with an excellent overview of the local and centralised systems of care, explaining the mechanics, bureaucratic hoops and orphanage records that the various types of home generated.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 Former Children\u2019s Homes<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Designed as a hub for sharing memories and information about children\u2019s homes, this site is particularly good for finding obscure orphanage records, such as the Woking Railway Orphanage (also known as the Southern Railway Servants\u2019 Orphanage), for children whose fathers had died during their work on the railways. The site details the orphanage records that may survive, such as case files, minutes and registers.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 Barnardo\u2019s Children<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Barnardo\u2019s traces its history back to a ragged school in London<\/a>\u2018s East End, opened by Thomas Barnardo to care for children orphaned by an outbreak of cholera.<\/p>\n
A boys\u2019 orphanage at Stepney Causeway opened in 1870, and by the time of his death in 1905, Barnardo\u2019s cared for more than 8,500 children in almost 100 homes.<\/p>\n
The hyperlink above leads to Barnardo\u2019s family history research service. They charge a \u00a325 administrative fee for all enquiries about a relative, with additional charges for the records.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 British Home Children Registry<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Between 1869 and 1939 100,000 children were sent from various orphanages to Canada<\/a> in search of a new life, becoming agricultural labourers<\/a> or domestic servants<\/a>. They were known as British Home Children<\/a>. Here you can search a database of British Home Children\u2019s orphanage records.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0 The National Archives\u2019 Children\u2019s Homes guide<\/a><\/h3>\n
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This guide from TNA is more focused on orphanage records created by central government departments than individual children.<\/p>\n
However, it is still a useful stomping ground for understanding the history of care, which is key to understanding what kind of records are held where. It also links to associated guides to help you research adoption records<\/a>, child migration and Poor Law material, and of course you can search the online catalogue Discovery<\/a>\u00a0to find records of specific orphanages that might survive in record offices and smaller archives.<\/p>\n
6.\u00a0 Expert\u2019s choice: Hidden Lives<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Chosen by Peter Higginbotham, author of\u00a0Children\u2019s Homes<\/a> (Pen & Sword, 2017) and\u00a0 Workhouses of London and the South East<\/a>\u00a0(History Press, 2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hidden Lives website is a treasure trove of orphanage records from the archives of the Children\u2019s Society (originally the Waifs and Strays Society), formerly one of the major providers of children\u2019s homes in Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe website focuses on the period from the society\u2019s founding in 1881 up until the end of the First World War<\/a>. Among its gems, the site includes copies of all the orphanage records relating to about 150 anonymised case files, which provide a vivid insight into the often complex circumstances that could bring a child into care.<\/p>\n
\u201cApart from parental death, these included the child\u2019s illegitimacy<\/a>, neglect, abandonment or homelessness, and the parents\u2019 mental health problems or involvement in matters such as alcohol abuse, domestic violence and prostitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe orphanage records for Case 1109, for example, concerns \u2018C\u2019, a boy whose extremely violent father was put into Wells Asylum. C then went to live with his grandfather, who later committed suicide by cutting his own throat. C\u2019s mother was too poor to look after him, so he went into a society home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe website also provides details and pictures of the many and varied orphanages it ran. These included rural cottage homes, houses in big cities, and even a country mansion or two. Many of the society\u2019s publications are digitised on the website, including a long run of its monthly magazine\u00a0Our Waifs and Strays<\/em>. Interestingly, all of the references to children\u2019s emigration have been redacted from its pages \u2013 presumably dating from a time when the society wished to distance itself from the now-condemned practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
More websites for finding old orphanage records<\/h3>\n7.\u00a0 Care Leavers\u2019 Association<\/a><\/h4>\n
The website has information about accessing orphanage records, plus lists of local authority contacts for records of council-run homes.<\/p>\n
8.\u00a0 Foundling Museum<\/a><\/h4>\n
Discover the history of the famous hospital established in 1739 by Thomas Coram to care for babies who were at risk of abandonment.<\/p>\n
9.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada<\/a><\/h4>\n
The Canadian archives website brings together databases and other material, for example passenger lists<\/a>, that can help you trace orphanage records for any relatives who were sent overseas as children.<\/p>\n
10.\u00a0 M\u00fcllers Homes<\/a><\/h4>\n
Learn about the Orphan Homes of George M\u00fcller, who cared for 10,000 children in Bristol during the 19th century. Staff will search the organisation\u2019s orphanage records for a small fee.<\/p>\n
11.\u00a0 Parliamentary Papers<\/a><\/h4>\n
Although only available via library\/archive subscriptions, here you can trawl Poor Law reports which include workhouse inspections and records for the orphans who lived there.<\/p>\n
12.\u00a0 Ragged School Museum<\/a><\/h4>\n
Visit a museum housed in the former Barnardo\u2019s Copperfield Road Free School in East London.<\/p>\n
13.\u00a0 Workhouses.org<\/a><\/h4>\n
Peter Higginbotham\u2019s website is especially good for finding out about individual workhouses, Poor Law unions, and related institutions such as industrial schools and reformatories.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonathan Scott is the author of<\/em> A Dictionary of Family History<\/a><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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