History & Records

History

Following the implementation of the Adoption Act (NI) 1967, the Catholic Dioceses of Northern Ireland established two Voluntary Adoption Agencies: The Down and Connor Catholic Family Welfare Society in Belfast in 1969 and the Derry Diocesan Child Welfare and Sisters of Nazareth Adoption Society in Derry in 1976.

This was at a time when a range of child care and family welfare services were routinely provided by voluntary denominational organisations across all faiths in Northern Ireland and both Agencies provided adoption services throughout Northern Ireland, assessing and approving adoptive parents and placing children into new adoptive families.

Following the enactment of the 1987 Adoption Order (Northern Ireland) in November 1989, the two Diocesan adoption agencies closed, and in 1990 formed a new amalgamated non denominational regional voluntary adoption agency and charity called Family Care Society.

The agency was by now assessing prospective adopters from a wide range of backgrounds and denominations; placing children who could no longer be cared for by their birth families into adoption from foster care; providing ongoing post adoption support to families and working with adopted adults to access their records and birth information and reunite with birth family members.

In 2016 the Charity became Family Care Adoption Services, and continues to be a leading provider of services in adoption assessment and placement, post adoption support, support for birth family members affected by adoption both historically and life story work with care experienced and adopted young people and for adults affected by adoption.

We are registered as an independent charity with the Charities Commission for NI (Charity No: 103068) and with Companies House (Company No: N023076) and are registered and inspected by RQIA.

Records

Family Care Adoption Services is the legacy agency for a number of former agencies which have ceased to exist but were involved in the care of children and/ or placements into adoption in the past.

We also hold or are the access agency for a small number of former Mother & Baby Home records

Records Held

• St Joseph’s Baby Home Belfast:

St Joseph’s was the Baby Home for the Catholic Diocese of Down & Connor and was managed by the Down & Connor Diocesan Orphan Society. St Joseph’s admitted babies and toddlers up to the age of approximately 2 ½ years most of whom were subsequently placed into fostering or adoption.

St Josephs closed as a residential Baby Home in 1933 with babies instead ‘boarded out’ to foster carers by the Diocesan Orphan Society in conjunction with the Belfast Corporation Maternity & Welfare Committee.

St Joseph’s Baby Home re-opened as a new purpose built residential Nursery at 516, Ravenhill Road in 1952. Its day to day administration was undertaken by the Sisters of Nazareth at the request of the Diocese, but it was not a Nazareth institution under the Sisters of Nazareth’s own authority.

As the need for a Baby Home diminished during the 1970’s the Baby Home evolved into a Diocesan Children’s Home, admitting older children and family groups and was officially registered as St Joseph’s Children’s Home in 1978.

St Joseph’s Children’s Home was a separate entity to St Joseph’s Baby Home and Family Care Adoption Services does not hold those records.

St Joseph’s Baby Home Records cover the period 1913-1980, and are in the form of Admission Ledgers initially, with accompanying Adoption Placement files beginning in the early 1950’s and Admission, Discharge & Placement books beginning in the 1960’s.

• Diocesan Orphan Society Belfast (Boarding Out (fostering) records:

Records are in the form of small Referral Books and cover a limited period between 1928-1934 with a smaller number of Catholic Baptism records over the same period.

Referral information is very limited; often only recording the name of the mother and the infant and the ‘Boarding Out’ placement to which the child was admitted.

• Mater Misericordia Adoption Society

The Mater Misericordia Adoption Society had responsibility for the Mater Dei Mother & Baby Home at 298, Antrim Road in Belfast with its day to day organisation undertaken by the Legion of Mary, a Catholic lay organization. Mater Dei was not a Maternity Home and babies were delivered by midwifery staff in the local hospitals and/or Private Nursing Homes.

Mater Dei did have the facilities to care for new mothers and their babies and many mothers returned to Mater Dei with their babies for a period of time on discharge from hospital.

The Mater Dei records are in the form of a Card Index between 1942-1980 with a smaller number of accompanying files relating to Adoption Placements from the early 1950’s.

• Down and Connor Catholic Family Adoption Welfare Society and Derry Diocesan Child Welfare and Adoption Society.

The former Down and Connor Catholic Family Welfare Adoption Society opened in Belfast in 1969, and Derry Diocesan Child Welfare Society opened in Derry in 1976.  Both agencies closed in 1989 and in 1990 a new amalgamated regional voluntary adoption agency and charity called Family Care Society (FCS) was formed.

The files of both former Adoption Agencies were transferred into the care of Family Care Society, which is now known as Family Care Adoption Services

Other Records

Good Shepherd Sisters

Marianville Mother and Baby Home: Open in Belfast between 1950-1990

Marian Vale Mother and Baby Home: Open in Newry between 1955-1984.

These records are not in the keeping of Family Care Adoption Services but have been retained by the Good Shepherd Sisters.

There is a Data Processing Agreement currently in place between the Good Shepherd Sisters and Family Care Adoption Services which provides a single point of access to those records in accordance with the agreed process.