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Tuam Baby Death Records

Between 2011 and 2013, Catherine Corless,a local historian from Tuam worked tirelessly researching the whereabouts of the children that was in the Tuam Mother & Baby Home. She paid €4 each time to get the publicly available death certificates of 796 children who died at the home at a total cost of €3,184 to her. 

Over the 36-year period the average number of deaths was just over 22 a year. The youngest child to die at the institution was only 10 minutes and the oldest was 9½ years

Often up to two children per day were recorded as dying at the home, while on some dates, such as April 22nd, 1926, three deaths were recorded.  Just over a week later on April 30th four deaths were recorded.

The information recorded on these State-issued certificates shows the children are marked as having died variously of tuberculosis, convulsions, measles, whooping cough, influenza, bronchitis and meningitis, among other illnesses.

The list below, compiled by Catherine Corless, lists the 796 children who died at the Tuam mother and baby home between 1925 and 1960 and 6 women who are also missing. 

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

 

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

6 single mothers, aged between 24 and 42, died in the Tuam Home between1925 to 1961 and remain unaccounted for.