Records relating to children and young people
Records of or about children and young people can be found in the records generated by fostering (boarding out) and adoption, the justice system, schools and nurseries and churches. Other voluntary organisations working with children may also have relevant records, such as sports clubs and youth clubs. Records which contain information about individuals are subject to closures under the Data Protection Act 2018.
Fostering and adoption
Registers relating to boarded out children may survive under the Infant Life Protection Act 1897 or the Children Acts from 1908 onwards.[1] The relevant records may include not only registers of guardians, but also of persons advertising for infants to nurse or adopt, or of a parent wishing to have a child adopted. Poor law separate children’s registers will contain records of destitute and orphaned children and there may also be cards and case files on boarded out children.
Part II of the 1908 Act strengthened the criminal law on cruelty to children and young persons, leading to the creation of registers of prosecutions. Other possible survivals are records of the actual boarding-out process, and in particular of the inspections of the homes where the children were boarded.
Legal adoption in Scotland dates only from the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1930.[2] Local authorities became increasingly involved as adoption agencies and their records may include adoption petitions, registers of applications by mothers (or expectant mothers) to have children adopted, registers or other records of those wishing to become adoptive parents and related material.
Most registers relating to boarded out/foster children and adoptions can be found in local authority archives. Their survival across Scotland is very patchy: there are extensive poor law records covering Glasgow and the surrounding areas, but in some other areas nothing survivesAdoptions dealt with by the Court of Session are held by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
Justice system
Registers of juvenile offenders and registers of juvenile cases may be found among the records of police courts in police and parliamentary burghs and the records of sheriff courts. Police forces may also have kept registers. Registers of juvenile cases generally contain the name of complainer, name of child, age of child, nature of offence, plea and court decision.
Records of industrial schools, reformatory schools and ragged schools may include registers or lists of children along with annual reports, accounts and correspondence.
Police court records and school records are usually held by local authority archives. Sheriff court records are held by NRS.
Schools and nurseries
School admission registers are an important source of information on individual pupils in Scottish schools in the late 19th century and 20th century. There is a separate Knowledge Base entry on these records.
Churches
Most Christian churches maintain registers of baptisms which are predominantly of infants or children but note that baptism may occur at any time of life and in some churches is restricted to people old enough to declare belief. Many churches also maintain cradle rolls, whether or not they practice infant baptism. They may also maintain records of confirmation, which may record children as young as 6. These records can be found either in local authority archives or in NRS.
Related Knowledge Base entries
Care of children, young people and families
Young offenders and children in the justice system
Poor relief – Children’s separate registers (1865-1948)
Poor relief – General registers of poor (1865-1948)
References
[1] Infant Life Protection Act 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c.57); Children Act 1908 (8 Edw. VII c.67).
[2] Adoption (Scotland) Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. V c.37).