Child migration

From the 17th century until Independence child labour was required in the American colonies. Pauper children and orphans were sent to the colonies as servants and apprentices. Tracing such emigration can be difficult unless parish records or lists of ship´s passengers survive.

After 1850, the Poor Law Unions took responsibility for the emigration of many pauper and orphaned children. Other institutions, such as industrial schools, reformatories, charities and voluntary organisations like Dr Barnardo´s, also assisted children to emigrate. Most children were sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to become farm workers and domestic servants.

Dominions Immigration Officers carried out inspections of children´s homes and made reports to their own government departments. Copies of these reports were usually forwarded to Britain. Some of these reports can be found in the series MH 19 Correspondence with Government Offices.

Home Office policy files on children are in the registered file series in HO 45 and HO 144, and also in the series MH 102, and cover all aspects of child detention in remand homes, and industrial and approved schools. They include files relating to individual schools and homes, and these sometimes include inspectors' reports. Subjects include absconding, education, general health and welfare, boarding out, fostering and adoption, emigration and employment. This series also includes files in the CHR (Children) series, which are now in the BN group, in BN 29 and BN 62 with some representative case files in BN 28.

With the outbreak of war in September 1939 a scheme to evacuate children from London and other cities and major towns into the country was put into operation. Evacuees were billeted in homes for the duration of the war and educated with local children. Some schools were evacuated with their teachers and classes kept together wherever possible.

Nominal records of admissions of evacuated school pupils maybe found in local record offices. We hold some files relating to evacuated schools in series ED 10, 11 and 134. These include information on moral and health standards the children encountered in their own homes and their new accommodation.

The growing threat of invasion and air attacks in June 1940 led to the formation of the Children´s Overseas Reception Board (CORB) set up to deal with the offers of assistance and hospitality from the Dominions and the United States of America. Records of the board are in series DO 131 and include a selection of case files of children in DO 131/94-105, their escorts in DO 131/71-87, and registers of child applicants in DO 131/106-113, but the majority of the files no longer survive.