The Salesians of Don Bosco are an international organisation of Catholic priests and brothers who work with disadvantaged and marginalised young people. They were founded by the Italian priest Saint John Bosco in the mid nineteenth century. The first Salesians came to the Kimberley region of Australia in 1922 in order to run a mission….
The Archives of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan are located in Toxteth House in Glebe (Sydney, New South Wales). The Good Samaritan Archives contain a comprehensive set of records generated by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan and the institutions run by them, such as schools, orphanages, women’s refuges and homes for the aged…
The National Archives of Australia (NAA) holds many records which provide information of interest to former child migrants. The records relating to individual child and youth migrants are essentially those concerned with their entry into Australia rather than the day-to-day care once they had arrived. The NAA also holds a number of policy and administrative…
Eugenics was an influential doctrine popular from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Eugenics refers to the philosophy and practice of selective breeding of humans with desirable (or “superior”) hereditary traits. While not discounting the role of environmental factors, it placed considerable emphasis on heredity in shaping an individual’s characteristics. The ideas within eugenics…
Closed adoption refers to the practice of sealing an adopted child’s original birth certificate and issuing a new birth certificate when the child was adopted. This new certificate included the name of the child and their adoptive parents. The identity of the adopted child’s original parents was hidden. This practice meant that many people didn’t…
Family Spirit was created in 2018 through the merger of the Marist180 and CatholicCare Sydney adoption services. Family Spirit deals with all forms of foster care and adoption and guardianship services. Family Spirit provides access to records relating to adoptions and some former Homes run by the Catholic Church.
Turner Cottage Special School for Truants was proclaimed a special school on 20 May 1938. It was located on the same site as the Mittagong Farm Home for Boys, and for a time, the school was under the administration of the Superintendent of Mittagong. When Anglewood Special School opened, boys from Turner Cottage were transferred…
Rehoboth was a Home for Aboriginal girls run by the Aborigines’ Inland Mission. It was officially opened in March 1924. Elizabeth McKenzie Hatton, a white missionary (later secretary of the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association), was instrumental in the establishment of Rehoboth. According to the Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership, McKenzie Hatton’s intention for Rehoboth was:…
The Sydney Female Refuge Society was established in 1848 with the motto ‘GO, AND SIN NO MORE’. It was established by a group of Protestant philanthropists to assist and restore women working in prostitution, as well as single pregnant women. The Society ran the Sydney Female Refuge, located in Pitt Street, Sydney and later in…
St Andrew’s Presbyterian Boys’ Hostel, Dubbo, opened in 1923 as a boarding hostel that provided accommodation to boys from remote areas so they could attend high school in Dubbo. The hostel was owned by the Presbyterian Church. By 1945 the hostel had closed. St Andrew’s Presbyterian Boys’ Hostel, Dubbo, was officially opened in June 1923,…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
