I spent a considerable amount of time tracking down my great grandmother on the 1861 census (at which point she had lost both parents), and eventually came up with "M S F, age 9, born abt 1852, in Paignton Devon, residing in the New Orphan House Number 2 in Clifton, Bristol St James and St Paul, Gloucestershire. Her name was Martha Susanna Froude born 4/2/1852 from this area of Devon and it seems that the orphans are all listed under their initials.
I thought this was a fairly reasonable identification, especially given some additional indications such as the fact that her place of birth on the 1871 census is given as Bristol, an anomaly which would be explained by her being in the orphanage in Bristol from the age of 9 or earlier. However when I contacted the George Muller foundation which ran these orphanages, they told me that she definitely was not there as she was not in their records.
Obviously, this is disappointing and, while I do not doubt their good faith and am grateful for their looking this up, I do not see how they could be so certain. I wonder if she might have been there and her name wrongly transcribed in their records. I'm just wondering if anyone has any previous experience checking records with the Muller foundation, an opinion on this matter, or any suggestions as to how to confirm this information in another way.
From what I have read of these orphanages, the girls were always kept there until they were seventeen years old, at which point they were found some form of employment, often going into service (unless they were expelled previously for some reason). Would there be some way of tracing her when she came out of the institution (normally this would have been in 1869 in her case).
