Foundling Voices: further information and support
If you or a member of your family attended the Foundling Hospital, or would like more information or support about issues raised in the Foundling Voices exhibition, these points of contact may be of help.
Coram
The Foundling Hospital now continues as children's charity Coram. We have retained the personal information and birth records of the children who grew up in our care, dating right back to the days of the Foundling Hospital. Through an experienced social worker, we offer a birth records information and counselling service to:
- Former pupils of the Foundling Hospital and their descendants
- Those who grew up in the care of the Thomas Coram Foundation as foster children
- Adults previously in the Foundation’s care as children but later adopted by their foster parents
- Adults placed for adoption as children through Coram or Adopt Anglia (including Cambridge Association for Social Welfare).
For more details, please contact the Team Manager, Coram Adoption Service at chances@coram.org.uk or call 020 8520 0330. N.B. Coram is only able to provide information for those who grew up in the care of the Coram organisations above.
Non-Coram care and adoption
If you did not grow up in Coram's care, please contact the relevant alternative organisation. Here is a list of key contacts you may find helpful:
Barnardo’s Family History Service: Holds an archive of records about the children in its care, from the early 1870s onwards. Write to: Barnardo’s Family History Service, Cottage 4, Barnardo's, Tanners Lane, Barkingside, Essex IG6 1QG. Email: familyhistoryservice@barnardos.org.uk
Action for Children: Ran children's homes from 1869. http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/
Children's Society: Ran more than 100 children's homes throughout England and Wales during the 1900s. www.childrenssociety.org.uk/about-us/our-history
Care Leavers Association: a not-for-profit organisation, run by care leavers for care leavers, providing advice, information and signposting to care leavers, such as how to access child care files, or what they are entitled to when they leave care. www.careleavers.com
Adoption: If you are adopted but were not adopted through a Coram organisation, and don’t know where the records of your adoption are, please try the following:
- Approach the local authority or adoption agency which arranged your adoption. If you do not know whcih agency arranged your adoption, you can make a first approach to the Social Services Department of the local authority in which you live
- Visit the Adoption Search Reunion website, intended to be the first port of call for anyone thinking about searching for or making contact with birth and adopted relatives or researching an adoption that took place in the UK
- Visit the NORCAP website, a national organisation focused on supporting adults affected by adoption.
Find out more...
The Old Coram Association was established in 1947 for former children of the Foundling Hospital to keep in touch with each other. Membership is open to anyone who was placed in the care of the Foundling Hospital, their foster parents, spouses and descendants. For more details visit www.oca1947.co.uk