Hi Karen and Oudeis,
I don't think this was the Royal Charter disaster, which struck rocks on 26th Oct. 1859. Of the 494 souls on board, only 35 were rescued, according to Picton's Memorials of Liverpool, of which only a percentage were perhaps children.
div>
Another idea, maybe, is that the children were baptised, prior to resettlement, in Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc., which was the practice in the 18th & 19th centuries.
'The Church of England Waifs and Strays Society, founded in 1881, sent over 3,000 children abroad, only about 5 per cent of its intake. National Children's Homes, a Methodist organisation established in 1869, also emigrated a modest proportion of the children they took into care, although still over 3,000. The largest operator came to be the homes established by Dr Barnardo. His organisation sent nearly 27,000 children to Canada between 1882 and 1928, and nearly 2,800 to Australia between 1921 and 1965'
The rest of the article here:
http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/w...stantines.html
Bookmarks