Genealogy Chat

Just recieved a Barnardos report strongly suggesting the reason my Gt Uncle was emigrated to Canada was due to his mother living off immoral earnings & going off for days on end with men and leaving him alone, he was only 11! Has anyone else found out things they wished they hadnt? Also was prostitution punished with prison sentence or fine then?

Good question - I just looked it up in my great-grandma's book (My Own Lawyer) and all it specifically says is:

"In law a woman is not a prostitute merely because she leads an immoral life, nor is a woman who lives with a man as his mistress a prostitute. The term is only properly applied to a woman who consorts with men indiscriminately for money. The distinction is very important,because a publican who allows his premises to be the resort of reputed prostitutes is liable to penalties. It is an offence, punishable by penal servitude, for a man to live on the earnings of prositutes".

(I think the book was published in 1930, by the way.)

Apparently she did work after her husband died but then resorted to an immoral life my nan was placed in a laundry home due to her mother immorality!

Just thinking it over, probably the prostitution thing did as much harm to her character in court as the neglect of her child - I think child neglect could have been an offence.

Under "Care of Children" it says:

"Anyone over the age of sixteen who has the custody, charge or care of any child, and who wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or exposes such a child or causes or procures any of these things to be done, in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary suffering or injury to health (which term includes injury to or loss of sight or hearing or limb or organ of the body and any mental derangement), is guilty of a misdemeanour. He may be prosecuted before a magistrate's court and sentenced to a fine of £25.

Alternatively, or if he does not pay the fine imposed, or in addition to the fine, he may be imprisoned with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding six months. The magistrate may decline to deal with the case and may send it for trial to Sessions or Assizes, and and this is done in serious cases. The fine may then be increased to £100 and the imprisonment to two years with or without hard labour."

No mention of that in the Barnardos report an no mention of her being taken to court i wonder if they let her off as long as she signed her son over to be emigrated to Canada?

Also wondering why only my nanwas put in Birmingam city mission laundry and then Surrey recue laundry. Possible she was preganant?

Could be. I think I have read - there might even be something on here about it (I think they were called "Home Children" or something similar) - that parents were encouraged to see it as a good opportunity for their children.

And maybe from a moral perspective, the local authorities thought it was better for him to emigrate than be raised as the child of someone who lived off immoral earnings? I think they tended to be more reactive like that than they are today.

Maybe your nan was put in the laundries because she was considered old enough to do "useful work" - I can't imagine the local authorities would want to look after a young person who was old enough to be working in some capacity. Perhaps they thought some kind of "honest work" would reduce the odds of her imitating her mother's lifestyle?

The barnardos report was excellent, very detailed. Well worth thre money.
May go to archives see if there any criminal records on my gt gran!

http://www3.telus.net/Home_Children_Canada/

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~britishhomechildren/surnames.htm

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmhealth/755/75502.htm

The above links give some interesting info regarding the "Home children" sent to Canada and other colonies.