Register of admissions - Industrial School, Magill and Edwardstown

These six volumes of Registers of admissions to the Industrial School deal with admissions to both the Magill Industrial School (1869-1898) and Edwardstown Industrial School (1898-1950). They contain basic biographical information about children admitted to the Homes such as name, age, parents names and address, religion, reasons for admission, date of discharge, and where they have gone to on discharge. Some entries in the registers mention children transferred to or from the Seaforth Convalescent Home, or the St Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Orphanage. Sadly there are missing volumes for the periods 1893-1897 and 1909-1912. According to the State Records of South Australia website these registers were destroyed and used as ‘waste paper in connection the war effort’ in 1944.

Access Conditions

Access to the records in this series is restricted for 100 years in order to protect personal privacy. Those records over 100 years old are open and can be accessed by any member of the public. People mentioned in these records have a right to access information about themselves. To request access to these records please contact the Department for Child Protection Freedom of Information team. To arrange access to open records please contact State Records of South Australia. Some of these registers that are over 100 years old have been digitised or indexed, and information from them is accessible online. See the below section on Digitised and Indexed records for links to access these.

Records

The registers contain the following information about children:

Volume 1: Date in top left hand corner. Entries over two pages. Left hand page: (1) Number; (2) Name; (3) Age; (4) Ship (5) How long in Australian colonies; (6) Date of arrival in South Australia; (7) Late place of residence; (8) What relatives in the colony, where living, earnings and occupation. Right hand page: (9) Nationality, (10) Religion, (11) Recommendation, (12) Reasons for requiring admission, (13) Date of admission, (14) Date of leaving, (15) Where gone to.

Volumes 2-6: Date in top left hand corner. Left hand page: (1) Number; (2) Name; (3) Age; (4) Date of birth; (5) Late place of residence; (6) What relatives in the State, where Living, Earnings and Occupation; (7) Religion. Right hand page: (8) Court of committal, (9) Reasons for admission etc, (10) Date of admission, (11) Date of leaving, (12) Where gone to. Notes on contents – (6) What relatives: Sometimes includes subjective assessment of parents background, such as ‘of low character’; (9) Reasons for admission: usually ‘neglected’, ‘uncontrollable’, ‘illegitimate’ or ‘destitute’. Re-admissions are also included. (12) Where gone to: From 1921, after establishment of Seaforth Home, many transfers to and from that institution. Date range – 1886-1892, 1898-1908, 1913-1929.

These registers are the State Children’s Department copies of original registers kept at the industrial school. The information between the two sets of registers appears to have been the same, though admission numbers assigned to individual children may differ across the two sets. The series linked to on the right hand side of this page is the most comprehensive of all sets, however if an individual cannot be found in these registers it is advisable to check the versions that were maintained by the schools, which date from 1863-1877 (GRG28/9), 1884-1903 (GRG27/10), and 1903-1908 (GRG27/11).

Digitised and Indexed Records

Registers dated 1863 -1877, 1884-1893, 1886-1892, 1898-1905, and 1905-1908 have been digitised and are available online via Family Search via the following link: Register of admissions to the Industrial School, 1863-1908. Please be aware that users must sign up for a free account with Family Search to view the registers.

State Records of South Australia has published an index for the register dated 1884-1903, which is available for download here: Register of admissions – Industrial School Magill.