Wages Paid to Orphans – a regional tour

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our recent Collections on Tour program events on Wages paid to orphans, 1849-1851.

To celebrate National Family History Month in August, representatives from the State Archives Collection travelled to Bathurst, Yass, Goulburn and the Central Coast to share stories about some of the 4,100 young Irish women who came to Australia between 1848 and 1850 as part of Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme. Recruited from workhouses in Ireland, these women became an integral part of the workforce in their adopted country.

On display was our NRS-5274 Wages paid to orphans (1849–1851) and our NRS-5276 Orphan account book (1850-1854), two key sources in researching the stories of many Irish girls and women who arrived in NSW under the scheme. Attendees also enjoyed exploring items used in our Hyde Park Barracks learning program, including a replica of Margaret Hurley’s servant box, an Irish orphan who arrived via the scheme in 1849.

The program was greeted with exceptional enthusiasm from these regional areas with sessions booked out weeks in advance and a total of 175 people attending across all four events. We were overwhelmed by the warmth and passion of the attendees, as they explored the display and learned more about how these girls impacted their local communities. We were grateful to be joined in Yass by his Excellency Tim Mawe, Irish Ambassador to Australia and his wife Ms Patricia McCarthy, together with Cheryl Mongan, President Yass & District Historical Society and MHNSW CEO Mary Darwell.

A highlight of the tour was hearing all the amazing stories from the direct descendants of the Irish orphan girls who attended the event. We were able to locate several Irish orphan ancestors in the registers themselves including Ellen Sullivan, who at only 18 years old travelled across the world from Ireland to Sydney on the Lady Peel in 1849, leaving behind a living mother in her home country. These register entries shed light on Ellen’s life after she arrived in the colony, showing us that Ellen was soon employed arrival by Ralph Louther Chape, a baker situated in Balmain.

This tour has highlighted how deeply personal our Collections can be and how they allow us to connect to different communities across the State. We thank Bathurst Library, Yass & District Historical Society, Goulburn Mulwaree Library and Tuggerah Library for hosting these events and allowing us to share our collections to regional New South Wales.

These registers have now been digitised and can now be viewed online via our Index to Wages paid to orphans. You can search the index by an orphan’s name, ship of arrival, or employer’s name to locate an entry relevant to you.