Newfoundland's Grand Banks Message Board

Annie and John Higdon adopted a daughter Violet at age 8. Violet is my grandmother and we are looking for information about her birth family. We have no names or dates? This was in St. Johns. She was an orphan until she was adopted. I am looking for information on the orphananges in that area during that time and where I could find more information in regards to her birth family.

34 41 John HIGDON M Head Married 1881 July 40 New Hr.
Annie HIGDON F Wife Married 1883 Oct 38 Tilton CB
Violet HIGDON F Ad Daug Single 1913 Jan 8 St. John's

1921 census so it shows here she was born in 1913 so there is a date to start looking at births.

It looks like there were 2 Orphanage's at the time that housed girls. One, The Church of England Orphanage and the other the Belvedere Orphanage. Children are listed in the census but she was born after the 1911 census and adopted by the 1921 census - being counted as a Higdon. You should be able to google (etc) to find and address though they both may be closed they were run by the churches. You could also try Family Search or the Newfoundland birth records for around that date.

Good luck on your search.

Linda

http://www.servicenl.gov.nl.ca/birth/ac ... ption_act/ Details how to obtain adoption records. I'm not certain how far back their records go, but this would be the first logical place to look.