Foundling Hospital Archive Free Online

The archives of London’s famous Foundling Hospital are now free to search online.

Almost 100,000 pages of records, containing details of over 20,000 children, have been made available.

The Hospital was founded in 1739 by sea captain Thomas Coram to provide a home for the capital’s many unwanted children, particularly children born to unmarried mothers.

At the time, the name ‘hospital’ meant any place that provided ‘hospitality’, or shelter. Rather than being a hospital in the modern sense, it was a children’s home, where children received care and education before leaving to enter into an apprenticeship at about the age of fourteen. The education was progressive by the standards of the day – both boys and girls were taught to read, girls were later taught to write.  The children were also taught music.

The digitised records fall into the following categories:

• Petitions from mothers and others: 115 volumes, 1762-1881
• Billet Books containing tokens: 203 volumes, 1741-1814
• Admission and baptism registers: 8 volumes, 1741-1885
• Apprenticeship registers: 4 volumes, 1751-1898
• Registers of country nurses and inspectors: 6 volumes, 1749-1812
• Branch Hospital registers: 5 volumes, 1757-1772
• Records claiming children: 21 volumes, 1758-1796
• Committee Minutes: 43 volumes, 1739-1895

 

Wards of the State Records Digitised in Victoria

The Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV) and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing have recently announced they have made records from 1864-1923 available online for the first time, putting out the following statement.

The records relate to children under care of the state in Victoria, (Wards of the State). Ward records are "a central departmental record detailing each child committed to State ‘care’, why and for how long a child was made a ward of the state and where they were placed during that term". They remain closed for 99 years from their creation, at which point they are opened to the public. These records are the only substantial record that still exists about each child, case records having been destroyed prior to 1973 and the creation of PROV.

For a child who was put in care due to concerns for their welfare or because they had committed an offence, Ward records are singularly important – providing a starting point on their journey to answer questions about their identity and their history, and containing otherwise disparate information about the places they lived and records that may have been created about them. "For many people institutionalised as children, the bureaucratic information in the Ward Register has to ‘stand in’ for the web of information contained in memories, personal and family memorabilia that most of us take for granted."

The records have recently been digitised and include the children’s:

• Ward Number
• Name
• Date of Birth
• Sex
• Native place
• Religion
• Ability to Read or Write
• Date of Commitment
• Commiting Bench
• Date of Admission
• Term
• Cause of Commitment
• Whether Parents are living
• Vaccination details
• Previous history
• Where stationed
• Licensing out details
• Discharge details
• Half yearly report information.

You can find the records at: https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/VPRS4527

A Rose by Another Name?

Many families have their own traditional names which are passed down generation by generation and occur frequently in the family tree.  In many countries there are naming traditions that are frequently followed, some of which might seem quite strange to us today.  There are names which go in and out of fashion, especially in response to Monarchs and other prominent people of the time.

In my own family, one naming tradition which took me aback when I first encountered it was the habit of reusing a name given to a dead child.   In my Green family a few generations back I have three Isaacs in one generation - the first two died young and the name was reused for the next-born son each time.  Eventually persistence paid off and the third Isaac Green in that family lived well into his 90's.  His father was named Isaac as well, and the name crops up in several other generations.  In my mother's Pummeroy family William and Alfred are popular, and recur several time across the generations.  This can create an additional challenge in making sure any information I find is linked to the correct person - I have a newspaper article from Trove that mentions William Pummeroy - and I have four of them alive at the time that the article could be referring to!

In my Irish family line, the tradition of naming the first son for the paternal grandfather (not a habit unique to Ireland by any means) also causes me headaches.  My ancestor James Mulholland had 5 sons, 4 of them living to adulthood.  These 4 adult sons - James, Patrick, David and Henry, ALL went and named their first son James!  As they all lived in fairly close proximity, this means I have 4 men named James Mulholland living within a few miles of each other, born within 5 years of each other - and two of them married women named Mary.

Abbreviations and nicknames also complicate my research - my father's second brother Ernest was always known as Squib, sometimes even on official documents.  In my mother's family, I have great- aunts Thelma, known as Lalla ; Elizabeth, known as Betty and Pricilla, known as Illa.  Another Elizabeth, in my father's family, was always known as Betsy, even in census records, on her children's baptism records and on her own death record.

All these various name usages can throw up roadblocks and cause mistakes in my research.  Recurring names make it difficult to ensure I am researching the correct person any time I locate new information, and nicknames, spelling changes and wholesale name changes can mean I completely miss relevant records because I don't know the name variation used at the time.

The Mystery of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae

One of my favourite (and most frustrating) family mysteries is that of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae.  Both were born in Ireland and emigrated to Australia, settling in the area around Bright, Victoria.

David Mulholland was born in Ireland sometime around 1830 and emigrated to Australia around 1860.  These details are only approximate, taken from the details in his death notice and cemetery headstone.  He married Eliza Jane McCrae, although no marriage record for the two has been found, either in Australia or Ireland.  For many of their children details are sketchy – most were never registered at birth, some died registered under their mother’s name, others under their father’s name.  For some the only details come from their cemetery records, as no other records seem to exist.

The death notice for David Mulholland reads “Mulholland.  On the 10^th April, at his late residence, Eurobin, David Mulholland aged 71 years, after a short illness.  Father of E.M., D.M., M.M., J.M., P.M., J.M., H.M.  Interred in Bright Cemetery Saturday 12^th inst.  Beloved by all who knew him.  A colonist of 42 years.”  This death notice was published in the Argus 15^th April 1902, the Australian 19 April 1902 and the Leader 19 April 1902.

The initials refer only to his surviving children – Ellen (Stoddart), David, Mary (Pape), Jane, Pricilla (Cark), James and Henry.  His wife Eliza is not mentioned, although she still lives.  All these children are also mentioned in David’s will, with the married names of daughters Ellen, Mary and Pricilla also included in the document.

David was buried in Bright Cemetery, 1F, Presbyterian, plot 35.  In the same or neighbouring plots are the following :

• Mulholland, Elizabeth Jane 85 years  Died 30/10/1925  Daughter of James McCrae and Mary
• Mulholland, Henry 4 years 8 months Died 29/1/1872 Son of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae
• Mulholland, Margaret 10 years Died 5/9/1885 Daughter of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae
• Mulholland, Margaret Jane 6 years Died 2/2/1872 Daughter of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae
• Mulholland, Samuel Thomas 4 months Died 29/4/1879 Son of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae
• Mulholland, Thomas 14 months Died 15/2/1872 Son of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae
• Mulholland, Thomas 10 days Died 26/1/1887 Son of David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae

From the details that I have, I can conclude David Mulholland and Eliza Jane (or Elizabeth) McCrae had the following children :

1. Ellen born 1862.  No birth record.  Married James Stoddart 1886.  Died 1905 – on her death certificate father David Mulholland mother Ellen (unknown), no place of birth given.  Her initials are included in David’s death notice and she is included in his will.
2. David born 1863.  No birth record.  Died 1951 - on his death certificate father David Mulholland mother Elizabeth Jane (McCrae), born in Eurobin.  His initials are included in David’s death notice and he is included in his will.
3. Margaret Jane born 1865.  No birth record.  Died 1872 - death record is under the surname McCrae, mother Eliza Jane McCrae, father unknown.  Buried in Bright Cemetery under the surname Mulholland.
4. Henry born 1867.  No birth or death record.  Died 1872 - buried in Bright Cemetery under the surname Mulholland.
5.  Mary born 1869.  No birth record.  Married John Pape.  Died in 1950 - on her death certificate father David Mulholland mother Eliza Jane (unknown), born in Eurobin.  Her initials are included in David’s death notice and she is included in his will.
6. Thomas born 1870.  No birth record.  Died in 1872 - death record is under the surname McCrae, mother Eliza Jane McCrae, father unknown.  Buried in Bright Cemetery under the surname Mulholland.
7. Jane born 1872.  No birth record.  Never married.  Died in 1948 - on her death certificate father David Mulholland mother Elizabeth (McCrae), born in Eurobin.  Her initials are included in David’s death notice and she is included in his will.
8. Margaret born 1874.  No birth record.  Died in 1885 - on her death certificate father David Mulholland mother Eliza Jane (McCrae), born in Eurobin.  Buried in Bright Cemetery under the surname Mulholland.
9. Pricilla born 1877.  No birth record.  Married James Clark.  Died 1976 - on her death certificate father David Mulholland mother Eliza Jane (McCrae), born in Eurobin.  Her initials are included in David’s death notice and she is included in his will.
10. Samuel Thomas born 1879.  No birth or death record.  Buried in Bright Cemetery under the surname Mulholland.
11. James born 1879.  Registered in 1880 (he was born 30 December 1879) born in Eurobin.  Died in 1970 - on his death certificate father David Mulholland mother Eliza Jane (McCrae), born in Eurobin.  His initials are included in David’s death notice and he is included in his will.
12. Henry born 1883.  Registered in 1883, born in Eurobin.  Died in 1966 - on his death certificate father David Mulholland mother Eliza Jane (McCrae), born in Eurobin.  His initials are included in David’s death notice and he is included in his will.
13. Thomas born 1887.  No birth or death record.  Died 1887 - buried in Bright Cemetery under the surname Mulholland.

I have also checked New South Wales records but found nothing.  I am descended from child no 9, Pricilla Veronica, who married James Nicholas Clark.  Anyone out there descended from David Mulholland and Eliza Jane McCrae, I’m interested in hearing from you and swapping information.

Childrens Homes

A new website has launched this week in the UK called Children’s Homes. It is dedicated to providing historical information on the various institutions that provided homes for children in Britain. This includes orphanages, reformatories, workhouses, poor homes, etc. The website is run by Peter Higginbotham, who also created the website 'The Workhouse'. At the moment, there does not appear to be any actual records uploaded to the website but it does include research suggestions and links which may prove useful to those trying to trace a child.
The site's welcome message states "The Children's Homes website aims to provide information on all of the many and varied institutions that — for whatever reason — became home for thousands of children and young people in Britain. They include a wide variety of establishments ranging from orphanages, homes for those in poverty, and children with special needs, through to reformatories, industrial and approved schools, training ships, and hostels."
The site includes a brief history of children's welfare in the UK, information on the different types of children's homes which existed, the ability to search by institution type or location, and more.