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Where would children be before being sent to Canada

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  • Where would children be before being sent to Canada

    I have two children sent by Barnados to Canada in 1900 they were born in 1891 and 1893 parents both dead by 1893 .
    What I wondered is where would they have been held until then?? I am assuming they were in an Orphanage ???
    They lived in Mile End at the time of birth

  • #2
    They could have been in the workhouse, Val.
    KiteRunner

    Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
    (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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    • #3
      thats so sad Kite.
      I am so excited about this family as I have finally find their mothers death and the emmigration records
      I did wonder if they would have been taken immediately by the Dr Barnados people.
      They also had a son and I cannot find him at all after 1891

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      • #4
        if you google 'Home Children Canada' you will find a wealth of information. The story of the thousands of children uprooted from poor families and sent to Canada never to see their families again is a massive tragedy that deserves a TV documentary on its own.
        Paul Barton, Special Agent

        Hear my themetune on http://www.turnipnet.com/radio/dickbarton.wav

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        • #5
          My great grandfather's siblings were sent away like this and he never saw his brother and sisters again.

          Most of the British poor who emigrated to Canada came in families, but an impressive number did not. Conspicuous in the latter’s ranks were thousands of young boys and girls who arrived unaccompanied by an adult family member. These children were apprenticed as agricultural labourers or, in the case of girls, sent to smaller towns or rural homes to work as domestic servants.

          These were the ‘home children,’ slum youngsters plucked from philanthropic rescue homes and parish workhouse schools and despatched to Canada (and to other British colonies) to meet the soaring demand for cheap labour on Canadian farms and household labour in family homes. Many of these youngsters, most of whom ranged in age between eight and ten, came from families of the urban poor who could not care for them properly. Other children, perhaps one-third their number, were orphans, while the balance were runaways or abandoned youngsters. At a time when few British emigrants were indentured in their overseas destinations, nearly all these child immigrants were apprenticed shortly after their arrival in Canada.

          Although Canadian farms had received orphaned and destitute British children as early as the 1830s, it was not until 1868 that the home-children movement began in an organised way. In that year, Maria Susan Rye, the feminist daughter of a distinguished London solicitor, purchased an old jail on the outskirts of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, had it refurbished, and then made preparations to bring her first party of children to Canada. They arrived in October 1869 with the well-publicised blessings of both the Archbishop of Canterbury and The Times of London.

          A few months later, Annie Macpherson, a Quaker working independently of Rye, brought another party of young children to Ontario. Soon, Louisa Birt of Liverpool (Macpherson’s sister), Thomas Barnardo of London, Leonard Shaw of Manchester, and William Quarrier of Glasgow… to name but a few of the best-known child-savers… were launching their own child-emigration programmes. Before long there was a proliferation of similar programmes, some of the more notable being implemented by the National Children’s Homes, Mr. Fegan’s Homes of Southwark and Westminster, the Middlemore Homes in Birmingham, the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society, and Miss Stirling of Edinburgh. Because Canada was closer to Britain than was Australia or New Zealand, it became the favoured destination for these charges.

          Maria Rye eventually placed over 5,000 children, mostly girls, in many parts of Canada and the United States. Problems arose in 1875 when the Doyle Report was released. Mr. Doyle was sent in 1874 to inspect the children sent to Canada by the Unions (workhouses). His report was very negative about Miss Rye’s work, in particular about the lack of inspection after children had been placed, and she did not bring any children to Canada for a few years after the release of the report.
          Underlying all these schemes was the activists’ belief that emigration was an effective way to rescue impoverished British children from the poorest and most crowded districts of Britain’s teeming cities. On Canadian farms, far from the temptations and polluted air of city life, their slum protégés would grow into healthy, industrious adults. Or so the thinking went.

          The long-lived programme eventually came to a halt in 1939, its end hastened not only by the Great Depression and the opposition of the Canadian labour movement but also by a change of thinking on the part of Canadians and Britons. Both, it seems, could no longer tolerate the idea of philanthropic organisations separating young children from their parents and sending them to work in distant lands, no matter how salubrious the setting.
          Paul Barton, Special Agent

          Hear my themetune on http://www.turnipnet.com/radio/dickbarton.wav

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          • #6
            hi Paul yes I have done that its very sad ,but there is much info not sure what I am looking at is the right stuff for me.
            just seen what you wrote Paul , I am going to have a very interesting read thanks so much.

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            • #7
              I read a book recently about this, and it was absolutley disgusting what went on in our names.
              It appears evryone was involved. goverment local authorities and childrens homes.
              Some of the children were told their parents were dead, only to find out years and years later that they were still alive.
              One social worker in Nottingham started the investigation and I believe it is ongoing.
              Their address is:- Child Migrants Trust
              28A Musters Road
              West Bridgford
              Nottingham, U.K.
              NG2 7PL
              Rita

              http://www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/.../User:Nappycat

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              • #8
                Thanks Paul for posting that. I have often wondered what people meant by "home" children. It was a terribly misguided idea.
                Lynn

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                • #9
                  thanks Rita it was horrific wasnt it ?? poor kids

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                  • #10
                    Praps this might help.... from our wiki

                    Julie
                    They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

                    .......I find dead people

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                    • #11
                      thanks Julie I did read that its where I found out which ships they went on , but I am confused as to where they would be between the mother dying in 1893 and 1900 when they went to Canada
                      I am going to write to Barnados at Ilford .
                      Must go now Tom is calling !!!!!!

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                      • #12
                        Not just Canada either, but Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia etc and the practise was still going on in the late 1970s - my local authority (Cornwall) sent its last shipment of children to Australia in 1976.

                        The Director of Social Services in Cornwall has since made a public apology to all those children (and their parents) who were affected by this Child Migrant Scheme.

                        The whole thing is a very black page in our national history and the various local authorities who enthusiastically supported this scheme did so for one reason only - saving money.

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          As they were girls there is a high probability they were residing at the Barnardos Girls Village in Illford or were boarded out by Barnardos prior to going.

                          Boys resided at the Stepney Home in London before they set off.

                          Union children did go under Barnardos. There is a new database on the Canada Archives site which states what Union children came from and your Muller children are not listed in that one so it is safe to say they were either at the Village or in 'Foster' care before going.

                          Their records will tell you the full story.

                          George
                          Proud to be connected to Elizabeth (Marjorie) Griffin, one of over 100,000 British Home Children sent from United Kingdom to Canada & Australia to begin a new life.

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                          • #14
                            Looking at the Barnardos Village in 1901, there is an Ellen Muller aged 14 residing there, born London.

                            Could she be another sibling or possibly a cousin of your Muller children who was not sent? might be just a co-incidence though.

                            George
                            Proud to be connected to Elizabeth (Marjorie) Griffin, one of over 100,000 British Home Children sent from United Kingdom to Canada & Australia to begin a new life.

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                            • #15
                              thanks for those replies I dont know about Ellen Muller but she could be a child I have not found yet shall look into it thanks

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