Searching information on McNamara, Maison La Belle, Quebec

[Don Cleary]

My father Edward Cleary was sent, by the Catholic association in 1908 at the age of 14, traveling on the SS Tunisian to Quebec 0n 13th April 1908. We know from family history knowledge that he worked for a man named McNamara, Maison Labelle, Quebec. He was working on logging.
>
His older brother, Bernard, had preceded him by four years and was also
working on logging and may have been at the same location. He is listed on a ship manifest as Bernard Walsh, aged 15 (mother unmarried at time of birth)
>
I have noticed, courtesy of your site, that a certain McNamara was taking in children at that time:
>
> Tweetybirdgenealogy
> ... Bredin F. FOX, James - 14, adopted boy with TJ McNamara family in
> Buckingham Twp, Labelle, Quebec, arr 1910, possibly on SS Tunisian with
> Father Ross.
>
It would be wonderful to clarify this part of my family history.
>
All I know is that dad ran away from Canada after a dispute with an
aggressive controller when he started hitting another boy. Dad intervened and they both ran. Dad went to Chicago to link up with his brother who had gone there earlier and changed his name on advice to Beverley (Irish names not being a good idea in the Chicago of that time, but this may well have something to do with entering USA illegally)
>
Edward Cleary (my dad) joined the US army - no work being available - and went to fight Pancho Villa in Mexico, later coming to Europe - presumable with the Americans - to fight in WW1, but deserted in order to fight with the Brits.
>
Any information would be very welcome. Regards, Don Cleary
>

[maesglas/ssclub]

hi Don
Im glad my info has been of some help to you, and Im sure others on this site will read and respond to it if they are able, but Im am not sure exactly what info you are after, please be a bit more specific, it might just be me, having just got out of bed, and also be patient as some people do not look all the time. (I cant help it, its the first that pops into my mind, and Im also waiting for a reply with baited breath)
Robert.

[Don Cleary]

Many thanks for the reply. Sorryfor being so vague - there is a gap in our family history relating to these two brothers and their period in Canada.

Some confirmation that one or the other, or perhaps both, worked for Mr. McNamara and any other background detail of their logging work would round things up nicely. We know what happened once they were in Chicago. Bernard married is cousin soon after arrival and a whole family of Beverley's now populate the USA. My dads story you already have.

Sorry to trouble you with this, but it would be wonderful to fill in this detail.

Regards, Don.

[AdeleE]

This transcription of the 1911 census of Canada (free website) has 3 T McNamaras in Labelle:

TJ McNamara, age 84 + family + labourers
http://automatedgenealogy.com/census11/View.jsp?id=110979&highlight=18

T McNamara, age 59 + family + labourer
http://automatedgenealogy.com/census11/View.jsp?id=110965&highlight=25

Thos J McNamara, single, age 30 + 1 domestic on next page
http://automatedgenealogy.com/census11/View.jsp?id=110978&highlight=50

To view the actual census sheet from which the transcriptions were taken, click split view at the top of each page.

I haven't been able to find your Edward Cleary in the 1911 census. Was he already in the US by then?

Adele

[georgiep]

Hi Don
What an interesting post?
Edw as listed sailed from Lpool to Quebec?
Bernard is a Walsh.
Did Mum Walsh marry a Cleary?
Thanks
Georgie
I think I'm a bit late with my reply

[georgiep]

Sorry forgot to ask if the boys were born in Lpool?
Did Bernard sail in 1904 bn 1889 Lpl to Q?

Thank you
Georgie

[Don Cleary]

Dear GeorgioP,

Both were born in London. Mary Walsh was pregnant outside marriage. In those days if you had no money you went to the workhouse to have your child and then stayed to work off your bill, so both children were born in the workhouse.

Since this meant that they were automatically under the control of the Parish, their education was also arranged by them, the result being that they were sent to a Catholic school/home. When such children reached the age of 14 the Catholics virtually sold them to Canada as workers. Bernard sailed on the Tunisian in 1904 and my father in 1908, without any reference to their parents. They just went.

I am trying to find what happened to them in Canada.

Thanks for your interest. Don.

[Don Cleary]

To Adele:

Thank you for your note Adele, in reply, All I know is that he (Edward) arrived in 1908 and left to join up with his brother in Chicago and then the US Army fighting Pancho Villa. His stay in Canada may have been brief, but he did say that he learned to speak Iroquoise Indian language, so he must have been around for a while - although lets face it many soldiers learned to speak French in WW1, but it only amounted to a word or two. In Dad's defense it is worth noting that his older brother learned to speak French whilst in Canada, and is recorded in family history as holding long conversations in French with someone who joined the family and who was from Quebec. He used to refer to Bernard as 'Mamook" which had some Quebec significance, but it may have been Nanook - which I believe has some Alaskan link ... it would be interesting to see if this means anything to someone reading this message.

Again thanks for the interest.

[Mary Anne]

Don

Interesting - it says the place of ultimate destination for Edward Cleary in 1908 is Ottawa and that the party was in the charge of a Rev. Mr. Wall. The agency was the Catholic Emigration Society (as you identified)

Interesting also -- according to the manifest for Bernard's trip in 1904, he was coming with the same Society (address 5 Westminster Bridge Road, London) also to Ottawa - to the New Orpington Lodge, Hintonburg in Ottawa. According to The Golden Bridge, this was established as the headquarters for the Catholic Emigration Society in around 1904, whence children were assigned to farmers in eastern Ontario and Western Québec. See further information on Orpington Lodge (with photo) here: http://www.holyinnocents.org.uk/pages/history_parish1.php
and here: http://www.holyinnocents.org.uk/pages/history_parish2.php

RE: learning Iroquois language -- the folks around Ottawa were largely Algonquin (different language), although if your Dad was in the logging in the Ottawa area or up in the Pontiac County on the Quebec side, there may have been Iroquois working in the camps. Labelle, Quebec is about 2 1/2 hours northeast of Ottawa.

About 'nanook' it means the master polar bear in Inuktitut (the 'Eskimo' language) and nanook would be the one who determined whether a hunter had done all the respectful things as he hunted and whether therefore his hunt should be successful. This might suggest that your Dad may have spent some time further north in Arctic Quebec, near Hudson Bay (not much logging that far up - near the end of the trees!).

It might be worth sending a query to [email protected] and asking if there are any records anywhere of the Catholic Emigration Society children who came here. The email address will link you up with a British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Home Children expert name of John Sayers, and he may be able to help with additional information.


Mary Anne

[Mary Anne]

Don

RE: New Orpington Lodge, extracted from the article here http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1999/McEvoy.htm

"In 1895 the Southwark Society informed Canadian immigration authorities that it planned on opening a receiving home for children in Ottawa, a government requirement since 1893.29 According to the first edition of the Society's quarterly magazine, “Boys and Girls,” Ottawa was chosen as the Canadian destination for the children because it was the centre of a splendid country in Ontario, where we can place a large number of children with prosperous Catholic and Irish Canadian farmers: it is essential that the children should be with men fairly prosperous, otherwise they will be made to do labour for which their age unfits them, the unprosperous man being too poor to hire help, or at any rate glad to escape the necessity. ... Next, it is necessary to have a resident and reliable agent, who can give his time to the work, and really watch over the interests of the children. Our agent is Mr. T.W. McDermott of 121 Sparks Street, Ottawa. Further it is necessary to have a receiving house at the centre, where our agent and his wife can reside, and to which the children can go on their first arrival in the country.
The house rented for this purpose was in the village of Hintonburg, on the western outskirts of Ottawa proper, an area annexed by the city in 1907.

The Home was originally called New Orpington Lodge, probably after the Catholic orphanage at Orpington in Kent; it was opened in October 1895 and “furnished and fitted up for the reception of fifty children by the generosity of a benefactor.” During the first year of operation it was used for two parties of approximately thirty children each. It was purchased after the first year for 600 pounds, and was owned by the society and its successors until the 1940s.

For whatever reason, McDermott was replaced early in 1897 by George Croxford, who was sent out from England.32 Following Seddon’s death at sea in September 1898, the Southwark Catholic Emigration Society merged with the Canadian Catholic Emigration Society, retaining the latter name, under the direction of Canon St. John.

Two Catholic organizations remained, the other being the Liverpool Catholic Children’s Protection Society, until its demise in 1902. It was replaced in 1903 by yet another society, the Catholic Emigrating Association, founded by A.C. Thomas of Liverpool and Father Emmanuel Bans of London. The previous year they had undertaken an extensive tour of Canada, discussing child immigration with some 75 Canadian authorities, both ecclesiastical and civil, and over 300 previous emigrants. They concluded that “Canada, our English Colony, wants population. Canada will welcome our children if we send the right sort; at home they are at a disadvantage; in Canada they have grand advantages.” They also urged the amalgamation of emigration agencies to promote better efficiency and economy.

The new Association resulted from the merger of a number of organizations and represented the child rescue work of the Archdiocese of Westminster and the Dioceses of Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury and Birmingham, including the Liverpool Protection Society. The Association continued to use the distribution home in Montreal, where its agent was Cecil Arden, an English convert from an old and well-connected family.

In 1903 the Canadian Catholic Emigration Society reported on its progress to the Archbishop of Ottawa, informing him that “the work seems to be more promising than ever. On all sides we hear expressions of great satisfaction of the way in which the children have been treated by those who have been good enough to take them.”

Unfortunately G. Bogue Smart, the federal government official in charge of inspection, was not at all happy with the condition of New Orpington Lodge itself. In 1900 Smart became head of the newly established Juvenile Immigration Division within the Department of the Interior, set up specifically to be responsible for the annual inspection of the immigrant children and to oversee the various agencies. It represented a tightening up by the government of the inspection process, which had not always been performed by properly qualified personnel. A staunch supporter of child immigration, Smart did not question the agenda of the agencies, with whom he formed a close rapport, but was determined to correct any flaws in the system, particularly by bringing the smaller agencies up to the stricter standards of the larger homes. His report of 29 May 1904 was devastating.

The accommodation at this Home, I regret to say, is not what it should be. The boys’ sleeping quarters consists of one large room in the attic. This room is unfurnished, unplastered, and access to it is had only through a narrow attic stairway. There were some camp beds with mattresses and blankets sufficient to accommodate half a dozen boys, and the balance of the party are obliged to sleep on the floor on very ancient and worn looking mattresses, covered by a blanket and a quilt and a pillow, without a cover, for each. On a hot night this room must be insufferable. In case of fire or other emergency, it would be almost impossible to get the children out unless by jumping from the upper windows.
The building throughout is badly in need of renovation. The office, which is upstairs, is inadequately furnished. I would recommend that it be moved downstairs to the south corner of the building directly opposite to the reception room, and that the room at present occupied as an office be converted into sleeping apartments. The importance of the work which is being conducted I consider necessitates these alterations.

The Canadian government immediately sent this report to the agent, requesting that it be forwarded to the Society in England. Changes occurred, which may at least partly have resulted from this intervention. On 1 November 1904, the Canadian Catholic Emigration Association merged with the Catholic Emigrating Association, to form the Catholic Emigration Association. Cecil Arden, the representative of the Catholic Emigrating Association in Montreal, became the agent for the new Association. As he informed Archbishop Duhamel of Ottawa in April 1905, “We have recently enlarged and refitted up the Home at Hintonburgh, and have named it St. George’s Home. From May 1st it will be our headquarters in Canada, and I shall take up my residence there from that date.” Perhaps the change of name was an attempt to make a fresh start; it may have been taken from St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark."


Mary Anne

[Don Cleary]

Dear Mary Anne,

Thank you so much for this. We realise now that these boys had a rough time in St.George's home, but the fact that it might have been for just a short period is a relief. I'm still exploring the various links, but your information is helping to paint some detail on what what was a pretty empty canvas.

Bernard went on to pass out as a lawyer from a university in Chicago, and later became a well respected engineer - never losing his English accent and was able to join in conversations with others from London, using elements of the Cockney working-class patois learned in his youth. He was know as 'An English Gentleman' by working colleagues - a wonderful man by all accounts.

Thanking everyone for contribution, best wishes, Don.

[Mary Anne]

Don

Glad to help.


Mary Anne