Adoptions, fostering and out-of-home care

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Useful Libraries Tasmania resources

Libraries Tasmania (which includes the Tasmanian Archives) has many resources to help you locate more information about your childhood or place of care, or to help piece together a bigger picture to put your experiences in context.  

For tips on how to search our collections, please see our guides, Searching Tasmanian Archives (for archive records) and Search our collections (includes published resources). 

Family history records

If you have memories or knowledge of family, or have received information through the PIP process (see How can I access my State records), you might have a range of questions on your family history that you would like to research.

We offer numerous Guides to Records to help you, including guides on:

Hospital birth records

Many hospital and health records are restricted. However, there are some records in the Tasmanian Archives that are open, for example:

Queen Alexandra Hospital for Women (TA459), which ran from 1905 to 1980 in Hobart:

Royal Hobart Hospital (TA441), from 1820 to today:

Launceston General Hospital (TA442), from 1820 to today:

North West Regional Hospital/ Burnie General Hospital/ Spencer Public Hospital, from 1918 onwards:

Baptism records

The Tasmanian Archives holds many baptism records.  See our indexes and library resources, including our online record guide on Church registers held in the Tasmanian Archive.

Open records include 1803-1933 Registers of Baptisms in Tasmania (RGD32).

Finding out where someone lived

Libraries Tasmania holds a range of resources to help you locate where someone lived in the past. For example, we have electoral rolls and telephone directories

School records

To help you find out more about your schooling, we have a useful guide to records on schools and education. Here you will find links to photographs, and school administration records, and tips on how to search for other records of interest.

Many schools had close links with particular children’s care homes. For instance, two schools were connected to the Launceston Girls’ Home including:

We also have a range of registers and admissions for specialist schools around Tasmania, including:

Photographs

Photographs are important for memories.  We have photographs of the exterior and grounds of various care homes, as well as of children and staff. For instance, we have a selection of photographs from the Northern Tasmanian Home for Boys. We also have several online photographs of children at Wingfield Home, which operated at New Town from 1938 to 1971.

Resources that hold memories of places

Walking tracks, playgrounds, schools and parks in the area surrounding a place of care or family home are full of memories and resonate with people’s senses of identity.  

In our library and archives collections we hold many local historical studies, historical photographs, maps and plans that can help you with researching a place and can add important details to your story.


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