Genealogy Chat

Im totally stuck, my great grandads cousin Elizabeth Griffin was sent at age 13 to Canada as a child migrant. She travelled on the SS Tunisian and arrived May 10th 1901. According to her immigration record her destination was St George's House, Ottawa, Ontario. I have absolutely no idea what happened to her next. Its made harder by the fact that she was a girl so would have married at some point to a canadian. I am still waiting to hear from the organisation that ran her uk orphanage Nazareth House,Middlesbrough. Have also contacted various child migrant organisations and experts. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions as I am totally stuck as to where to go next. George

Hi George, I am not sure how much help this site will be but it might be worth a try http://www.islandregister(.)com/homechildren.html There are some links on there to other sites as well. It is getting to be quite a thing over here with reunions of "Home Children" every so often, and there was an article in the paper a while ago about somone finding some of the boxes that the home children were given to put their belongings in instead of travelling with a suitcase. Anyway, all the best with your search. Barbara

George This site has lots of info about British Home Children. It has some very harrowing stories on there though. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb(.)com/~britishhomechildren/ Sue

Hi George My nannas cousins were also British Home children. I found their children last year. They also had done some research on their parents but found as they were young when they were moved their names had actually been changed around. They also thought their mothers maiden name was Rachel and married name was bartlett the harsh reallity was that their mother was never married and just had 3 illegitmate children. They apparently distorted the truth a bit about their lives to hide what had happened to them (when reading more about them this was common) So maybe in Canada your Grandfather's cousin had her name changed? and her details in Canada are not correct and do not tally with what it was in England. Keep trying with this web site Sue gave you there are lots of helpful people on there And is run by a really nice bloke called Perry Snow he has been helpful to me but like you we know little of their lives in Canada. Good luck with your search. Hope everything works out and let us know how you go on! good luck Jan x http://freepages(.)genealogy(.)rootsweb(.)com/~britishhomechildren/

Thanks Guys, I'll keep at it and hopefully will one day find her descendants. Have joined the British Home Child Mailing list, George

If you contact Nazareth House HQ giving them details they should be able to help, I think they are in Barking Essex, its a long time now since I used them and I`ve lost address. My grandparents were also sent to Canada, g.mother in 1889 and I was very fortunate to recieve details about her through Barnardos (after a wait of over a year!) but the info was worth the wait. Also, my g.father was sent to Canada in 1885, his emigration was handled by the Liverpool Catolic Protection Soc, they are now known as the Nugent Soc. they too can offer information, cannot lay my hand at the moment on the info, but will look it up for you and get back to you.

Hi again, I was unable to find the info for the Nugent Soc. but will keep looking and will let you know if I find it (I have mountina of paper work!!) However, in the meantime, try the following, I found this site very helpful in tracing my grandfather & his sisters they were sent to Ontario, I was able to obtain their details and name of ship etc, there is lots of other details on this site which may be of help to you, good luck. Site entitled Young Immigrants to Canada http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marg/geneaology/homeadd.html If you have problems with the above number (it is quite a long time since I used it) just ask Google, put in "Young Immigrants to Canada" or "Home children in Canada" that will help you find it. You can also try http://www.orphantrainriders.com another helpful area is www.ingeneas.com Home the abov info will help. Maud

Been on Young Immigrants, good site. Wrote to Nazareth House HQ a week ago, I communicated recently with someone who wrote in February and has'nt heard yet so Im not hopeful of hearing back from them.

I heard back from Nazareth House and learnt that she was admitted on 15th June 1900 on the recommendation of the Board of Guardians. It confirmed her parents names and gave me her date of birth. She left May 1st 1901. She sailed for Canada the next day. Why would they not say in the register that she was sent to Canada? A very kind soul had a look at the immigration records at Canada Archives, and discovered that she and 12 others in her group came from Middlesbrough Union which mystified me cos on the 1901 census shes in a Nazareth House a Catholic Orphanage but the word union suggests she came from the workhouse! Is it possible that she could have been under the care of the workhouse authorities but placed in Nazareth because she was Catholic? Im stumped still!

Feeling very happy now. A GC member in Canada has come up trumps and found out that Elizabeth lived in Arthur town, Wellington Co, ONT from at least 1903-1905 with a Mrs. C. Heffernan ( Hotelkeeper)!!! now I need to decide which direction to go in next in my hunt!