Discover Home Children's stories

2-3 minute read

By Daisy Goddard | June 28, 2024

This week we've made a huge update to our Home Children Collection, with Barnardo home records and more.

We've added a trio of important Home Children record sets to our collection this week.

If you have a Home Child in your family tree, you may find their name within all-new enlistment and military death records, burial records, or the Hazelbrae Barnardo Home Index. Explore these new additions to discover important stories that, until now, have been lost to history.

Who were the British Home Children?

Over 130,000 children were sent to live overseas by the British government between the 1860s and the 1970s. Care homes, the church, local authorities and philanthropic organisations rallied behind the scheme, whereby children as young as 2 were sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as a way of solving England's 'juvenile vagrancy' problem.

Search Home Children records

This period in the Commonwealth's history has been largely forgotten - but we're dedicated to changing that. In partnership with Home Children Canada and Library and Archives Canada, we're publishing an ever-growing collection of Home Children records. Over 4 million people worldwide are descended from a Home Child - if you've got a Home Child within your family tree, these free-to-access records may help you to uncover their story.

Home Children Burial Index

This new index, created in partnership with Home Children Canada, includes burial information for over 7,000 Home Children.

Home Children Enlistments and Military Deaths

This brand-new collection tells the story of Home Children who went on to enlist in armed forces across the Commonwealth between the 1890s and the 1950s.

Containing records from the Anglo-Boer War, both World Wars and the Korean War, this set provides a comprehensive and transnational account of Home Children's involvement in military conflicts over a 60 year period. These 6,653 records are transcription-only.

Home Children Hazelbrae Barnardo Home Index, 1883-1923

These 9,050 new records document Home Children that were received at the Hazelbrae Barnardo Home in Ontario, Canada between 1883 and 1923.

Illustrated Police News, 9 June 1921.

In conjunction with the Canadian Home Children Immigration Records Index, Inspection Reports, Boards of Guardian records and these indexes from Bethany Children's Homes in Pennsylvania, this new record set tells the story of each child's migration to an unfamiliar land.

New pages from Lanark to Luton

Our newspaper collection grew by 111,501 pages this week. We added a brand new title - the Shoreham Herald - and updated ten of our existing publications from across the UK and Ireland.

Here's everything we added this Findmypast Friday.

New title:

Shoreham Herald, 1986-1990

Updated titles:

Bognor Regis Observer, 1960
Carluke and Lanark Gazette, 1988
Fraserburgh Herald and Northern Counties’ Advertiser, 1892
Halifax Guardian, 1833, 1835-1837, 1842
Leamington Spa Courier, 1955-1959, 1961-1964, 1968-1969, 1995
Londonderry Sentinel, 1985, 2002
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle, 1975, 1988
Nelson Leader, 1960-1966, 1989, 1999
St. Andrews Citizen, 1995
Stornoway Gazette and West Coast Advertiser, 1994

Episode 2 of Was Justice Served? out now

Episode 2 of our new podcast Was Justice Served? sees Jen and David dive into a mysterious double poisoning case that took place in Victorian-era Surrey. Listen as they examine the evidence, hear testimonies from the trial, and ultimately determine whether the person responsible for this particularly grizzly crime was brought to justice.

Listen now

But that's not all. After listening to the episode, take a look at the case files for yourself. Based on the newspaper clippings available, what's your verdict? Join the conversation by voting on whether or not justice was served here.