Parentage Unknown: The Ultimate Brickwall?

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post on Foundling Children in Glasgow after coming across some early 19th Century baptisms of foundling children in Glasgow's Town's Hospital. Whilst researching at the ScotlandsPeople Centre this week, I was once again struck by a record of a Glasgow foundling, this time in the Statutory Registers of Births. 

It’s an unusual birth record as it shows not a date and place of birth but rather when and where the baby girl was found. In the column where parents’ names are usually recorded it simply states ‘Parentage unknown’. 

An associated entry in the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE) gives a slightly amended name, apparently following her baptism, and a note in the margin shows that she was later adopted. 

What particularly interested me what that she was not a newborn when found but believed to be over a year old and chances are her birth was registered in the usual way when she was born. 

This means that in just the first few years of her life this baby was probably known by three different names (her original name, the name given to her as a foundling and her later adopted name) and may in effect have three birth records (including her entry in the Adopted Children Register). 

Yet, with nothing to connect her original birth entry to the later records, she is almost certainly impossible to trace. Anyone who comes across the original birth record and wants to find out what happened to her in later life will probably not be able to connect her with the foundling known by a different name. Whilst any descendants, even if aware of the circumstances of her adoption, will have little chance of identifying her birth parents without even a date of birth to go on. 

So this leads me to a question: Is a foundling child the ultimate in genealogical brickwalls? 

Foundling Children in Glasgow

Researching at the ScotlandsPeople Centre this week I was looking for a baptism in the Old Parish Registers when I came across a list of names under the heading 'Exposed Children Continued'.

By looking at the previous page I discovered that this was actually a list of baptisms of Foundling Children in Glasgow's Town's Hospital.

According to the Old (or First) Statistical Account of Scotland (Account of 1791-99 vol.5 p.520): “The Town's hospital, or Poor's House, was founded in the year 1730. It was intended to maintain and give good education to orphans, or those who were left destitute, to afford an asylum to the old, and to promote the best interests of all, in the cheapest possible manner.”

The list appears to be at the end of one of the baptismal register books for the Parish of Glasgow (OPR 644¹/20) and there may well be similar lists in other books of the register.

These baptisms are included in the usual indexes to the OPRs (you can spot them because there are no parents' names) and at least some of them are included in the IGI. However, on the IGI ages have been rounded up or down to the nearest year rather than being given as recorded.

The full list is as follows:

List of Foundling Children, in the Towns Hospital, Baptized by D^r John Lockhart

Mess^rs Daniel Mackenzie, Preceptor, James Moffat, Chaplain & Francis Ross, Witness

Baptized 13^th. Dec^r. 1805.  -  Age as nearly as could be conjectured at the Baptism

Duncan  -  Mathew Duncan  -  2 years & 3 Months
Stewart   -  James Stewart  -  2 years
Russell   -  John Russell  -  6 Months
Largs  -  Paterson Largs  -  4 Months
Frazer  -  Campbell Rae Frazer  -  3 Months

Baptized 29^th. July 1806.
Gardner  -  John Gardner  -  9 years & 3 months
Hay  -  Margaret Hay  -  4 years & 3 months
Lindsay  -  Jean Lindsay  -  2 years & 6 months
Govan  -  James Govan  -  3 years & 3 months
Thomson  -  Richard Thomson  -  2 years & 3 months
Brown  -  Thomas Brown  -  3 years
Falconer  -  Mary Falconer  -  3 years & 9 months
Smith  -  John Smith  -  1 year & 3 months
Miller  -  Elisabeth Miller  -  8 months
Young  -  Alexander Young  -  2 months

Baptized 21^st. May 1807.
M'Arthur  -  Mary M'Arthur  -  3 years & 9 months
Graham  -  James Graham  -  6 years & 9 months
Young  -  Agnes Young  -  4 years & 3 months
Cleland  -  Martha Cleland  -  2 years & 3 months
Duncan  -  Mary Duncan  -  3 years & 3 months
Patrick  -  Elisabeth Patrick  -  1 year
Monteath  -  Robert Monteath  -  6 months
Miller  -  Joseph Miller  -  6 months
Cherry  -  Agnes Cherry  -  3 months

Baptized 16^th. Sept^r. 1808.
Paisley  -  William Paisley  -  1 year & 3 months
Martin  -  Elisabeth Martin  -  1 year & 3 months
Gillies  -  Mary Gillies  -  1 year
Fairley  -  Elisabeth Fairley  -  9 months
Paul  -  Charlotte Paul  -  9 months
Symons  -  Jean Symons  -  9 months
Smith  -  Martha Smith  -  8 months
M'Farlan  -  Mary M'Farlan  -  8 months
Wilson  -  Mary Wilson  -  8 months
M'Lachlan  -  James M'Lachlan  -  8 months
M'Grigor  -  Mary M'Grigor  -  8 months
Gordon  -  Stewart Gordon  -  6 months
Robinson  -  Ann Robinson  -  6 months
Miller  -  Agnes Miller  -  5 months
M'Kean  -  Mary M'Kean  -  5 months
Campbell  -  Sarah Campbell  -  3 months
Sinclair  -  George Sinclair  -  3 months
M'Dermid  -  Janet M'Dermid  -  6 months
Dodd  -  William Dodd  -  3 months
Brown  -  Joseph Brown  -  2 months
Ross  -  Sarah Ross  -  2 months
Paterson  -  Jean Paterson  -  1 month
Fergus  -  James Fergus  -  3 years & 3 months
Torrance  -  Maria Torrance  -  10 months

Baptized 18^th. May 1813
Ferguson  -  Ann Ferguson  -  3 years & 11 months
Stewart  -  Ann Stewart  -  3 years & 1 month
Ramsey  -  Margaret Ramsy  -  3 years & 1 month
Fotheringham  -  Peter Fotheringham  -  4 years & 3 months
Chisholm  -  James Chisholm  -  4 years & 1 month
M'Lachlan  -  James M'Lachlan  -  3 years & 4 months
Strachan  -  Nancy Strachan  -  3 years & 3 months
Nichol  -  Harriet Nichol  -  1 year & 6 months
{…...}  -  John Buntine  -  1 year & 10 months

Exposed Children Continued
Stewart  -  Helen Stuart  -  1 year & 6 months
Stewart  -  Robert Stewart  -  1 year & 2 months
M'Pherson  -  Isobel M'Pherson  -  1 year & 2 months
Stevenson  -  John Stevenson  -  1 year & 2 months
Campbell  -  Will[ia]m Campbell  -  1 year & 2 months
Berrie  -  John Berrie  -  1 year & 2 months
Stwart  -  George Stuart  -  1 year
Maxwell  -  Jean Maxwell  -  1 year
Newark  -  Jean Newark  -  1 year & 4 months
M'farlan  -  Peter M'farlan  -  1 year & 1 month
Houstoun  -  Cathrine Houstoun  -  1 year & 3 months
Rodger  -  Will[ia]m Rodger  -  5 months
Sym  -  Will[ia]m Sym  -  7 months
Stewart  -  Agnes Stuart  -  3 months
Govan  -  Mary Govan  -  1 year & 9 months
Lumsden  -  Mary Lumsden  -  9 days
Gillespie  -  Janet Gillespie  -  1 year & 6 months

It appears that some records relating to the town's hospital are held by Glasgow City Archives and the University of Glasgow.