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Details for each child were recorded under the following headings:
- Name: where known
- Age: in general most of these were mere days or months old
- Sex - Place or location where found: a street number is given in the majority of cases
- Place or location where found: a street number is given in the majority of cases
- Date overseers took charge of child
- Sum agreed to be paid for nursing of the child
- Name given if baptised in care of police
- Religious denomination of Minister who baptised the children who remained in police care
- Remarks: this is the most informative, and often times distressing section of the report. These remarks tend to detail the fate of the child, in most cases they were either taken into the care of the parish or received into the Union Workhouse system. A minority of the children were repatriated with their mother’s, who would have then been arrested.
The Report on Deserted Children provides a unique snapshot into the social conditions of Dublin for the period 1850-54 and provides a graphic, an often harrowing, picture of their fate
This publication accounts for about 500 children taken into the care of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force in the years ending 30th June 1850 to 1854. It is taken from a Return made to the House of Commons in July 1854.