Thanks for sharing that with us, June. Good sleuthing to have found your foundling
ancestor and nice you've gotten back so far, but £50 to obtain copies? Ouch!
I envy you your Gustavus. Wouldn't it be so much easier if we all had ancestors with
unusual names? Mine are all John, Mary/Maria, Hannah, and Frank!
Kindest regards,
Lynne
June Dowling <june.dowling(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Thank you Lynne, for this information. I notice the article also mentions Foundlings.
I have a foundling in my ancestry who was taken into the London Foundling Hospital - sent
out to be 'nursed' - then sent to Ackworth, Yorkshire aged 6. Ackworth was an
off-shoot of the Thomas Coram Foundling Hospital. He was apprenticed to a Farmer and
remained in Yorkshire (otherwise I wouldn't be here!)
As it says in the article -- his records were at London Metropolital Archives. It cost me
about £50 to obtain copies -- so worth it though. Luckily he had been given an unusual
Christian name when baptised at the Foundling Hospital, otherwise I would never have found
him. I actually discovered him by doing a blanket search on Family Search. The name he was
given was Gustavus Smith! This was in 1757.(His married daughter went on to name a child
Gustavus Smith Barber).
It's worth getting the papers if you do come across a Foundling -- gave me an enormous
shock though.
June