From Britain to Canada: Researching British Home Children in Your Family Tree
Length: 60 minutes
Summary: The Victorian period in the United Kingdom saw cities and towns filled with poor children whose families couldn’t care for them. Often these children were sent to private philanthropic homes and institutions which were soon overrun. The solution was child migration. From 1869 to 1939, over 100,000 British Home Children were sent to Canada. Was your ancestor one of them?
Audience Level: Intermediate -Expert
Requirements: Projection for computer on a large screen; internet connection
Content: 4-page PDF handout
Outline
- As early as the 1600s, children were sent to the British colonies as a source of cheap labour to alleviate the shortage of workers overseas.
- In the 1830s, child migration to Canada began with more than 100,000 children sent to be used as indentured servants and domestic workers.
- Who were the children? Most were from poor families who struggled to care for them and were surrendered by their parents to private institutions. • Institutions were quickly overrun, and a solution was needed.
- Child migration was seen as a social reform whereby poor children would be sent overseas with opportunities to breathe fresh air, to be housed, fed, educated and given the chance to work.
- Over 50 sending organizations participated, including MacPherson, Bernardo, Birt, Fagan, Middlemore, Quarriers, and Rye.
- For many children, life in Canada was not much better than the life they had left in England or Scotland.
- How to research your British Home Child ancestor.
- Two case studies are included: my great-granduncle and his brother were sent from London, England, through Barnardo Homes to Stratford, Ontario, and my friend’s great-grandmother was sent to Nova Scotia through Middlemore Homes.
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