A campaigner whose baby was taken from her in a forced adoption at 16 has stated that significant questions about the UK's mother-and-baby homes remain unanswered, including how many children were buried in unmarked graves. Diana Defries, who successfully campaigned for a state apology for forced adoptions, believes that increased access to records could assist families in understanding events within these homes.
Dr Michael Lambert, a historian from Lancaster University, supports this view, arguing that archives held privately by religious congregations could help "unlock" important historical information. Unmarked graves of children who died in Nazareth Houses and similar institutions run by other religious orders have been discovered in the UK.
Sister Anna Maria Doolan, safeguarding lead for the Sisters of Nazareth, said the order welcomes and supports the government's apology for forced adoptions. She stated that requests to access information regarding former residents are welcome in line with their archive access policy, but noted that records from before 1980 are sometimes incomplete due to different guidelines at the time.
Ms Defries was sent to Nazareth House in Southampton in 1974 after becoming pregnant. She recalls being discouraged from holding her baby to prevent bonding. She later met her daughter in 1992 and became chair of the Movement for an Adoption Apology, which led to an apology from then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in July, accompanied by £4m in funding for a national online resource.
Ms Defries has sought her own records from the Sisters of Nazareth and received a redacted copy of a register. She believes privately held records could exist and offer clues to potential injustices, not only in homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth but also in similar institutions across the UK. Dr Lambert's research, some of which involved access to diocesan records, indicated more infant deaths in a Church of England home than previously known.