Records of St Joseph's Industrial School, Wellington

[johnbarr]

I see from NZSG Index that Elizabeth Thatcher b. 2 Mar 1883 attended St Joseph's Industrial School, Wellington 1896 to 1898.  Source is given as "School Inspector Returns, Ref EB-W8/25" at Archives NZ Wgtn.

Has anyone ever accessed these records - and if so, can they tell me if they provide any more information, e.g. details of parent/guardian etc. 

I have a copy of the excellent description of the school from Cyclopedia of NZ, so it's just personal details of Elizabeth's school years that I am after.

John B

[spades]

Hi John,

Industrial School records are held at Archives NZ and I've sighted some held in Wellington. They were in written logbook form, several schools to a book and pupils listed loosely A to Z within each school.

Do you want me to look for records?

Spades

[johnbarr]

Hi spades,

Thank you for your offer.
Only if you are fairly confident we might learn something new from the record - if it will only confirm her attendance then not much point.

Elizabeth was third daughter of the Catherine Thatcher whose details you have already helped with.

John B

[Thamesite2017]

John
there are several mentions for Eliza on the kiwi index that are new
listed as INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL NOMINAL ROLLS
have you got the index yet, if not i'll pm
Bye
Althea

[ellipitt]

Hi

The School Inspector's returns were generated by the relevant Education Board - that's the EB part of the Archives reference.

The Inspector visited a school and usually set an examination for the pupils. This was marked and those marks determined whether the child went on to the next class level or not.
The information in the records is limited and usually only gives the child's name; date of birth or age; the class, i.e., Primer 4, Standard 1; and whether they proceeded to the next class level. Occasionally there will be an extra note along the lines of 'Often absent', 'started school last week' or, more tellingly, 'imbecile'.

The Returns were indexed many years ago as a way of getting some idea where children went to school. Too frequently, school rolls were found to be missing or so badly damaged as to be unusable so the Returns were indexed to give researchers a place to start.

Best wishes
Elli

[johnbarr]

Elli,
Many thanks for that explanation. It seems as though we will not learn anything about her circumstances and family, just that she attended the school - which we already know, so no point in following further.

Althea,
Thanks for the offer. It would be nice to know if she was there for longer than the 3 yrs shown on Index v5, (1896-1898) .

Spades,
In light of Elli's answer, I will cancel my request.

New information suggests that she was "brought up as an orphan", and as there were dormitories at the school, presumably that is where she was living for those years. It sounds as though St Joseph's was pretty close to being an orphanage.

John B

[Thamesite2017]

Thanks for the offer. It would be nice to know if she was there for longer than the 3 yrs shown on Index v5, (1896-1898)

the records are 1888-1895
sent by pm
Bye
althea

[johnbarr]

Oh that's a big help, thank you Althea.

So she was there from age 4 until 15, a much bigger chunk of her life now explained. 

It looks like St Joseph's Industrial School was Wellington's orphanage, as I cannot see any other orphanages listed.

John B