Foundling / Exposed Child 1880's Scotland

[SlowCheetah]

Hello all

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on how foundlings / exposed children would have been handled in the 1880's.

Would a foundling receive a birth certificate?
Would 'illegitimate' or some other designation be marked on the cert?
What name would they have been likely to have been recorded under?
Were they placed in state or religious care?

Appreciate any help, many thanks.

[Falkyrn]

1. The birth would require to be registered
2. If they were illegitimate this would have been marked in the Registry and on any certificate issued as a copy of the registrars records (only changed around 1919)
3. Mothers maiden name unless father is known and agreed to registration
4. Poor relief was initially administered by the Church (Church of Scotland) until the reformation of the Poor Laws around 1845 after which it was basically a committee for the poor who administered it see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Poor_Laws

[SlowCheetah]

Many thanks for your reply. The child was a foundling and was dumped. The mother and father would have been unknown by the finder. In this case, what name would the child be registered under? Would illegitimate or another designation be placed on the birth cert? Would the child be the responsibility of the Church of Scotland or the State?

Thanks!

[Falkyrn]

In the circumstances you outline it is likely that the bio mother did not Register the child.
The childs subsequent Registration if as most likely done by the Parochial Board could have been named anything at all. Perhaps the finders name or the name of one of the staff, it's impossible to say.
The illegitimate marker would have been recorded IF they were certain that the child was illegitimate.
By 1880 the church's involvement was vastly reduced and the Parochial Board was largely an arm of the elected local Council.
Having said that the Catholic Church operated their own orphanages and Homes and if the child was dumped with them they would have taken it up rather than the Parochial Board.
see http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/GlasgowDalbethIS/ (although this was more for young women for one reason or another)

[Elwyn 1]

I have come across quite a few foundlings in Irish records. (Left on the steps of the church according to the baptism records). The births were usually registered, and the child baptised. The forenames & surnames given to the child were sometimes of the person who found the child, or of the Minister. Or of the place they were found. (So you might see "Jane Lurgan" for example.) The parents names would be blank in the statutory and church records.

State care was rare in the 1880s. Formal adoption wasn’t introduced in the UK till around 1927. Prior to that, fostering and adoption was informal and mostly undocumented. The church or various charities might arrange it. The child might then take the surname of the family it was placed with, and there was no need for any paperwork to record that.

[WilmaM]

Out of curiosity I searched the OPR births on SP.

I entered * as the surname and Foundling as the parents name
There were a few returns:
1 where the Father's surname was Foundling
1 whose surname was the registration district and Foundling Child as parentage
most of the rest bear the adoptee's surname and Foundling/Adopted is noted

The RC records:
all bar 1 have Foundling as the Surname and foundling noted in parents details.
Pity poor Mary who started life as LYING!

The census records also have a smattering of young children bearing the surname Foundling throughout the years ,
but they must have been subsequently adopted as there are no adults with the Surname.

So it would seem that these ' Lost' children were all adopted and changed their name to that of the family taking them in.

The one modern example I personally know, was adopted and named by the childless couple on whose doorstep they were left.

[SlowCheetah]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I have been told that a foundling may have been mentioned in the Kirk session notes. I see these are on Scotland's People but they aren't the easiest to search. How would I find the notes relating to the Bridgeton / Calton areas does anyone know?

Thanks

[WilmaM]

That is a very good place look for such a thing.
However they aren't indexed for easy searching, and it can be a slow process.

For those areas I think you'd have to look at the Glasgow City Presbytery records and the Kirk session for St John's, St Mungo's , Barony, and Park.
:https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/plac ... y/GAZ00073

If you have a fairly precise date that'll make it much easier to have a search around those times for any mention.
Each parish had their own format, some much clearer than others - for instance many helpfully have the names of those involved in the margin, others simply run on with no obvious breaks in the prose.

SP do have a guide to help you navigate these records : https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guid ... on-records , but sometimes you just have to dive in and see for yourself.