We have carefully retained the personal information and birth records of the children who have grown up in Coram’s care, ever since our establishment as the Foundling Hospital in 1739.
Your birth records
Through an experienced social worker, we offer a birth records information and counselling service which is available for:
- 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
If this sounds like you and and you would like more information, please contact us at adoption@coram.org.uk or on 020 7520 0383.
Please note that we are only able to provide information for adults who fulfil the criteria listed above.
Children and descendants seeking records from the former Coram Adopt Anglia agency should contact Cambridgeshire County Council at adoptionenquiries@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or on 0300 123 1093.
Services for descendants
Information held for children admitted to the Foundling Hospital
Historical records more than 110 years old are open to the public through The London Archives. For records under 110 years old, we can provide information from our records with consent of the nearest surviving descendant.
Coram does not have a legal obligation to provide family history information to relatives and descendants of those formerly in our care. However, we are aware that lives may have been significantly affected by separation and loss, and we have a unique set of records that may contain information about families of origin.
We can provide a package of information for £280. This includes an initial meeting with enquirer, processing identification, research and bundle documents. If this cost prevents you from accessing the records, please let us know.
Your bundle is likely to include:
- Admission details and application form
- Summary of circumstances of the birth parents/s
- Details of any foster home and dates of attendance at school
- Summary of any medical information held (This is likely to be limited)
- Leaving report and employment
- Information about the life at the Foundling Hospital School and any appropriate photographs.
- Information about baptism
The information will be either emailed or posted via special delivery service at enquirer’s request. To apply for this information please email adoption@coram.org.uk for an application form.
Additional service to those who have purchased the Access to Records bundle:
Face to face meeting and copy of the file including letters and photographs.
Cost: £150
The information is gathered from a number of different sources, and this varies for individual children. Information will be processed in accordance with Data Protection regulations and personal information about third parties who may still be living cannot be disclosed.
Non-Coram adoptions
If you are adopted but were not adopted via Coram or Adopt Anglia or in the care of Coram/the Foundling Hospital, and you don’t know where the records of your adoption are, you can:
- contact the local authority or adoption agency which arranged your adoption. If you do not know the relevant agency, 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, designed 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.