125,000 British children migrated to Canada

[Lori.o]

Approximately 125,000 children were sent to Canada from England, under the Child Immigration scheme from 1833-1939. These boys and girls ranged in age from toddlers to adolescents and were all unaccompanied by their parents even though only one-third of them were orphans. Most emigrant children came from respectable, if poor, families bound by strong ties of affection and support. Most of these children were brought to institutions such as the Dr. Barnardo Homes as a last resort, when a crisis, or repeated crises – desertion or death of a parent, illness, unemployment – prevented a family and its network of kin from coping. Although some families regarded admission as a temporary expedient, the rescue homes carefully controlled or even discouraged further contact between all children and their relatives for fear that the children would be tempted to return to homes. Once in care, most of these families never saw these children again. Siblings in care in Britain were often separated from their families and each other. Siblings were often separated from each other when they were sent to Canada. Most never saw each other again. Many spent their lives trying to identify their parents and find their siblings and most were unsuccessful.

There is a new web site dedicated to these children who were brought to Canada. Information can be found at https://
canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/index.html

If you have a child in your family tree whom you cannot find out any information on, please consider that they may have been sent to Canada as part of this migration scheme. Many children were also sent to Australia and that continued until upwards of 1970. In Britain, the Australian migration of children is better known then the scheme which sent children to Canada. Immigration of these children to Canada slowed down considerably around 1930 and afterwards just a trickle of children came. It is estimated 15% of our Canadian population are descendants of these children. In my family tree alone I have discovered 13 British Home Children.

[terrysfamily]

Many children were also sent to Australia and that continued until upwards of 1970.

Reminds me of the mini series The Leaving of Liverpool (TV 1992).

https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leaving_of_Liverpool

You can get it on dvd. Very good series as I remember.

[Lori.o]

Reminds me of the mini series The Leaving of Liverpool (TV 1992).

https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leaving_of_Liverpool

You can get it on dvd. Very good series as I remember.

Thanks for posting that, I've not heard of that before. Just checked out the link and its exactly what I'm talking about. These children were also sent to Canada. Now I'm interested in finding a copy of this. Thanks!

[Lori.o]

That number of children brought to Canada should have said Approximately 100,000 and not 125,000. Sorry for the error!

[Waitabit]

Who can ever be absolutely in error regarding this. were they counted?
If it were not for people like yourself making posts like this, many would remain unaware of just how many children were 'lost' to their homelands, & why.

Thanks for trying to connect them.

[Julie.Spavins]

My first awareness of this was from reading Lesley Pearse - Trust Me. Its an un-put-downable read, and I was horrified that even though I was born 1965, I was never aware of this forced emigration of children.

I highly recommend it, even though its a fictional novel it is rooted in fact, and makes me feel ashamed of how we Brits behaved even so recently as the 1970's.

Julie

[Lori.o]

Thanks Wendy and Julie, wonderful. Julie, I had not heard of that book before. I'm just checking it out on the internet now. Thanks for mentioning that!

[Geoff Wycherley]

There is a book 'New Lives For Old' by Roger Kershaw and Janet Sacks which covers the charities that were involed in the sending of children to the commonwelath countries its makes very interesting reading and gives a good insight into the system of child emigration.

I myself came across two of my relatives in Liverpool aged about ten and eight in the early 1900's who when their father died and the mother remarried were put into the Liverpool childrens home and were then sent to Canada. Looking further into this as to why this happened I came to the conclusion that when the mother remarried the new man in her life was not prepared to take on another mans children, why other members of the family did not offer the children a home can only be guessed at.

[terrysfamily]

My first awareness of this was from reading Lesley Pearse - Trust Me. Its an un-put-downable read, and I was horrified that even though I was born 1965, I was never aware of this forced emigration of children.

I highly recommend it, even though its a fictional novel it is rooted in fact, and makes me feel ashamed of how we Brits behaved even so recently as the 1970's.

Julie

I bought this book in ebook form using ADE (Adobe Digital Additions). Had a problem right from the get go. My ebook reader is a Chinese version by Rockchip. It will play almost anything music, films and of course ebooks but isn't recognised by ADE. I could read the book on my laptop but that isn't why I bought it, I want it on my ebook reader.

ADE not recognising my reader so the DRM security on the book wouldn't allow me to read it.

I decided to remove ADE and the book from my laptop, did that last night. Then, I found a free program that removes the DRM. DOH.

I downloaded it for future use and only then remembered that I had tried copying the book to my device but it wouldn't open. Looked for it on there and found the copy. Ran it through the DRM remover and voile I can now read it on my ereader.

The thing is, I wasn't told by ADE that my device wasn't a recognised device until after I had paid for and downloaded my book. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough?

Anyway started reading it last night for half hour, I've only got to page 21 but I'm into it already. Thank you Julie

[Mary Anne]

The most significant database for British Home Children brought to Canada is the one maintained by Library and Archives Canada. It is absolutely FREE and searchable. A link to it can be found at the Library and Archives Canada website at: www dot collectionscanada dot gc dot ca/genealogy/022-908.009-e.html
where there is a description of material held by Library and Archives Canada that was used to create the database. It includes information extracted from Canadian incoming passenger lists, Immigration Branch Central Registry files, Juvenile Inspection Reports, and Middlemore Emigration Homes records. New records are being added on a regular basis, as the information is extracted and indexed.

Volunteers with the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) have been working with Library and Archives Canada for a number of years to ensure that these records can be searched and available FREE to anyone. The Middlemore Emigration Homes index (also FREE) is on the BIFHSGO website at
www dot bifhsgo dot ca. BIFHSGO has also published a number of articles about British Home Children in its quarterly journal, Anglo-Celtic Roots, as well as a collection entitled British Home Children: Their Stories that is available from Global Genealogy (Google it). Global also has a number of other BHC resources available for sale.

BIFHSGO will reply to queries regarding British Home Children, free of charge (email queries at bifhsgo dot ca). It will also supply copies of Anglo-Celtic Roots articles, for the cost of shipping and handling. As well, BIFHSGO will provide references to the Middlemore Emigration Homes records, so that copies of children's files can be obtained from Library and Archives Canada (again, for only the cost of shipping and handling).


Mary Anne