Genealogy Chat

Do check out 'British Home Children in Canada'. Even if your family was not directly affected by this tragically misguided scheme, you will find this website gives a fascinating insight into a forgotten piece of history.

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 Barnardo's 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.

http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com

thank you for that. It will help me stop banging my head on a brick wall.

What a wonderful site! I was just going through the photos of some of the children. How sad that so many of them never saw their brothers and sisters again.

A very interesting site.

A good book to read on this subject is "Little Immigrants - The Orphans Who Came to Canada" by Kenneth Bagnell,

I read this book a few years ago and recall the first person he spoke about was a young boy of 13 yrs. His father had recently returned injured from WWl and could not work and his mother couldn't cope so he was sent away. Very sad.

Actually this past year, 2011, was the "Year of the British Home Child" here in Canada and we had many Historical Society meetings about the topic.

September 28th has been now designated as "British Home Child Day" here in Canada, with the first being marked on September 28th 2011. One of the ceremonies held that day was the unveiling of a beautiful new memorial in honor of the 9,000 children who were sent to the Hazelbrae Barnardo Home in Peterborough, Ontario.