Listers Does anyone have any experience of researching for British Home Children in the 1880s? Would a 2 year old British child be sent directly to a couple in Australia in 1881? And if so, would his adoptive parents have been given details of his birth parents? It seems more likely that a child would be adopted after he arrived in Australia rather than the couple applying directly to England surely? The National Archives say that is unlikely there was a passport for him when he left anyway and ship records are a problem too it seems. cathy

In message <269.1fba804.30cb3c73@aol.com>, AudreyJoyceMcC@aol.com writes >Listers > >Does anyone have any experience of researching for British Home Children in >the 1880s? > >Would a 2 year old British child be sent directly to a couple in Australia in >1881? And if so, would his adoptive parents have been given details of his >birth parents? Probably he would have formed part of a group of children rescued off the streets and sent abroad, or part of a family encouraged to emigrate by the agents who worked in England then. If the family /the mother died, the child might be 'left over' and taken in by a couple who either had no children or who had several and big hearts. In that case, probably the new parents had some notion of the name of the birth parents, but it might not have stuck with them. > >It seems more likely that a child would be adopted after he arrived in >Australia rather than the couple applying directly to England surely? WAS there official adoption in Australia then? There wasn't in England till 1926 Act, and people just took on ldren without formality. > >The National Archives say that is unlikely there was a passport for him when >he left anyway and ship records are a problem too it seems. The only thing that seems possible is a trawl of shipping lists for any which arrived, say, within a couple of months of the fostering, to see if there was a family who all got fever bar this one. There just might be a piece in a newspaper if the child was orphaned on ship or almost at once, and 'but it is understand Mr & Mrs Fred Smith have offered to care for the waif.' -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society