From London’s Foundling Hospital opened in 1741, through the workhouse and the voluntary and faithbased homes established in Victorian times, to councilrun accommodation in the 20th century, children’s homes and orphanages include a wide variety of institutions, and locating their records can be difficult. Even the word ‘orphan’ can be misleading - a child who had lost only one parent, especially the father, could be viewed as an orphan. And a so-called orphanage might take in children whose parents were both still alive.
The first step is to identify the institution(s) where your ancestor once resided, but this can be tricky. Larger towns and cities might have had several, sometimes shortlived, children’s homes whose names could be similar. Children could be transferred between homes and, over the years, institutions
