General Chat

Have found my gran in a girlsórphanage in 1911.
I´m a bit puzzled because she is listed as an inmate, but was almost 16 when the census was taken.
Surely it would have been normal for her to have been at work by that age.As far as I know, she had no health problems which might have kept her there & she doesn´t appear to have been an assisstant.
Anyone any ideas please?
It doesn´t fit with any of the family stories about her childhood.
Marion

Are you 100% sure you have the correct person?

Christine

Thanks for your replies.
Yes, I,m positive it´s the right person. She & her brothers were orphaned in 1907. Have found her elder brothers & their wives. Her next younger brother is also in an orphanage, but for boys. As he was only just turned 11, that was no surprise.
She could have been working there, but would have thought she would have been shown as an assistant rather than an inmate.I have been told that before she married, she worked as a housekeeper.
Roll on the 1921 census!!!
Marion

My dad left school at 11, in 1911. So she would almost certainly have been workig there, unless she was counted a hazard to herself if allowed out.

I don't know Marion, but from my reading I can tell you that if she had been there as an orphaned child with nowhere to go, she may well have been kept on there to work in the orphanage after leaving school.

Can you find anything else to do with that particular orphanage?
Some people can find out so much, and me? I only seem to find the people.
Good luck with your search.
Deanna X

The school leaving age in 1914 was 12 .... or thereabouts.


In fact, a child had to have completed a certain number of HOURS of education before they could leave school.


I have the certificates that my parents were given that said they had successfully completed the hours ......... and could legally leave school and obtain work. Dad obviously carried his in his wallet or pocket for years because it is all creased and a bit grimy!



Did you look at the actual image to see if it said any more


Sometimes the census would say Inmate as the relationship because the person was living there, but Occupation would tell you what she was actually doing ...... maid, kitchen maid, cook, laundry, etc etc


If you have only looked at the transcript then you will only have seen the relationship.



sylvia

To be honest I think there´s more to the story than meets the eye. The Home was run by the Waifs & Strays Society, which is now the Childrens Society & according to the website, it was for girls with "problems". Haven´t seen the actual census, just the transcription, but have found details of both homes by Googling & am hoping that some records may have survived, but haven´t contacted them yet. I get the impression from the blurb that it was along the lines of an Industrial school.
Don´t have access at the moment to the 1911. Just the freee search.
Thanks to all for the suggestions. I also seem to have problems finding anything other than people.

Marion,

My father was in a Waifs and Strays orphanage on the 1911 census. (He wasn't an orphan just that his father had died and he was in poor health with a mother on parish relief.)

Contact the Children's Society and ask for a search for your Gran's records. They very kindly found my father's file, which was closed in 1913 and it gave so much information, filling in gaps of what I knew, and I am sure what he knew too. Wish he had been still around when I got the transcript about 5 years ago.

Good luck.

Elisabeth

Edit: The Waifs and Strays was taken over by the Children's Society many years ago. They didn't make a charge for the search but I did send them a donation, as I was so thrilled with the transcript they supplied.

Thank you both.
Have a note of the Childrens´Society address from their website, so will give it a try. No objection whatsoever to paying for the info.
Marion