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Child Migrants from Birmingham

S

soltown2002

proper brummie kid
According to the House of Commons Child Migrants Trust Report 1999, it is estimated that approximately 150,000 children were dispatched to the colonies over a period of 350 years with the earliest recorded child migrants leaving Britain in 1618 for Virginia USA. Over 100,000 of these youngsters ended up in Canada.

While researching my own family history, I accidentally discovered that one of my distantly related ancestors Elizabeth Griffin was a Child Migrant. My family had been completely unaware of her existence even though my great great grandparents raised her brother Dennis from the age of 9.

She was sent overseas in 1901 by a Northern Workhouse to Canada along with a group of other local children.

I know that Birmingham Union Workhouse sent at least 126 children to Canada and it is possible that even more local children were sent through other child welfare organizations to some of the colonies as child migrants.

Birmingham based Middlemore Homes sent more than 4000 children to Canada.

There still may be descendants of these children’s families living in the Birmingham area. With a little bit of determined research and plenty of patience, some of you may also discover that you have connections to families around the world.

I am saddened to see that there are still very many known ‘home children’ who are not being ‘claimed’. Of course their descendents are often unaware of their existence as I was but for those of your readers researching their family history, who have found that the trail of a young ancestor has ‘gone cold’ between the years of public census, it may be that they had not simply died but that they were one of these many children.

A child did not have to have been an orphan or deserted for them to have been sent overseas. There have been times in the past when social conditions in Britain were tough and families found themselves in difficulties for all sorts of reasons. Some had to turn to one of the many organizations such as Barnardos for help. Sometimes it was part of the agreement of a child’s admission to a home that their parents/guardians had to consent to their children being ‘emigrated’ if the organization thought fit.

It is also worth knowing that a few did manage to return home again so that they do not appear to have left in the first place. Some young men enlisted in the Army during WW1 and WW2 as a way of trying to return home, others simply waited until they reached adulthood and were able to save up for the passage home. Many however were completely unaware of their origins or had lost touch with their families. Some simply never had the opportunity to return to the UK because of poverty, illness or death.

Despite the very many sad stories that have come to light over the years there have also been many successes and some children were fortunate to be taken on by considerate employers or found themselves in loving homes and went on to have families of their own. However their lives turned out to be, happy or sad, they all deserve to be remembered and yet this still seems to be a period in our history that has been shamefully neglected and forgotten.

My personal aim is to try to unite descendants with their ‘home child’. To this end, if any of you think that there is a possibility that you might be connected to one of these child migrants, I would like to recommend as a starting point a couple of very good websites devoted to this very topic:

https://www.britishhomechildren.org
https://www.collectionscanada.g.....dex-e.html

Even if you do not have a child migrant in your family please help raise awareness of the scheme by visiting the sites and reading about the scheme

Thank you so much for reading this

Georgina Sales
 
Hi Georgina and welcome, at the top of the page, in the blue band, you will see a search option, put in Middlemore Homes and you will find a number of related threads that exist on this site


bren
 
Welcome also, Georgina, and thanks for a very informative and valuable post.

Chris
 
It is truly appalling what happened to some of these children that were sent from all parts of England, SOME WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THEIR PARENTS.


CHILDREN SENT ABROAD....C1890 in TNA.... MH19/11?
 
On this subject I bought a book in Australia called "Orphans Of The Empire",it was never published in this country,those responsible have to much to hide I should think.
It was a horror story of the worst kind of child abuse,and went on until the 1960s.
However,there were some happy endings,one in particular was a relative of mine who became the headmaster of a school in Melbourne,and went on to write a book of his experience's.
 
Thank you, Georgina and Bren. I have relatives who dropped off the census betqween 1901 and 1911 who I'm sure are among those 'exported' to Canada and have tried (unsuccessfully) to find them. I now have another source of research. Thank you so very much.
I'm so glad I have joined this forum. I have learned so much already. Brummies are so helpful. I'm proud to be one of them.

hugs,

Maggie
 
Forwarding on behalf of someone who is not registered on this list

Thanks - George

Are there Descendants of Home Children on this website that aren't subscribed to the British Home Children mailing list?

As 2010 has been proclaimed the Year of the British Home Child in Canada, it is a year to plan special programs and events to further the public's awareness.

Some Societies already have programs organized to bring in speakers for meetings and Workshop Days planned.

Through the British Home Child mailing list we are trying to organize a Photo Memory Quilt.

We are also submitting 'Our Stories of Home Children' for an Anthology book to be published later this year.

Please contact me personally if you would like to take part in one of these projects, know of other events that are being planned or have other ideas/suggestions of your own.

To help further the public's awareness, please feel free to post my message to other mailing lists or organizations that would be interested.

If you are interested please respond below and I will send you the contact details of the lady organising some of it.

George
 
I see the Government are now apologising for what happened to the 'Home Children' long overdue I think! I must admit I never knew about this until recently and was surprised it was still happening in the 1960's. I can't imagine what these poor mites went through in fact I was brought to tears listening to some of the encounters. As was said now we wouldn't let a four year old cross the road these poor children were sent on their own to the other side of the world......... unbelievable.

I wonder do we have any on the forum it would be nice to know.
 
I watched a programme on tv a few years ago,i was amazed to see hundreds of children boarding a ship headed for Australia.
This took place in the last war,the children were told their parents had been killed,the parents were really just shunted from one
office to another looking for information,some never got explanations,some of these children when they grew up found their families, and came home,some couldn't afford to,and sadly some it was to late and their parents had died,there is according to the programme a support network for people in this situation,but it should never have happened
 
Ray Barrett said:
On this subject I bought a book in Australia called "Orphans Of The Empire",it was never published in this country,those responsible have to much to hide I should think.
It was a horror story of the worst kind of child abuse,and went on until the 1960s.
However,there were some happy endings,one in particular was a relative of mine who became the headmaster of a school in Melbourne,and went on to write a book of his experience's.
Click to expand...
I have the same book Ray - I bought it in Perth after hearing the author talk on Ed Doolan's show. Very difficult to read and what made my blood run cold was the fact that such things were still happening about the time my eldest son was born.

And driven by the arrogance that the people who did it were doing the right thing.
 
At this moment Gordon Brown is standing apologising to the children who were sent to Australia in the war and before that in the twenty's,it was a policy that brothers and sisters should be separated,The Australian Prime Minister has also apologised to them,because they were not always given the care they should have been
 
Bernie,
I also bought my book Orphans of the Empire,in Perth it was the the last copy they had in Myers.
One story in the book was of an eight year old girl,who was under age,and and in very poor health,(both against the rules) and she died soon after arriving in Perth.
Having been so moved by this horror that was commited on a child,I went to Fremantle to find her grave, too make sure it was properly tended.Some good people were there before me,and yes, it had all been taken care of.
 
I listened to Gordon Brown's apology to the "deported" children sent to Australia and other Commonwealth countries, and to the phone-in to Fern Brittan on Radio 2, it was really heartbreaking and brought tears to my eyes. It wasn't just their childhood they lost but their identities especially the very young, some as young as 3, and it has affected them all through their lives.
 
My Grandmother was Kate Lawless born 1884.Her two slightly older Brothers William & his Brother John, were sent to Canada. Family rumour suggested it was because they played truant from school but as their father Michael Lawless had died in 1891 it was more likely that they were sent to improve their lot……………….who knows?

Well as the records show they were certainly sent there but during the late 1800s and early 1900s more than 5000 children were sent from the Middlemore Homes in Birmingham through Mr Middlemore’s charity!

William, age 10 & John Lawless, age 8, sailed from Liverpool on 23/5/1893 aboard the SS Siberian. There were a total of 72 Boys & 19 Girls being sent to Nova Scotia & New Brunswick, Canada, in Mr Middlemore’s Party. They arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 3/6/1893. They were first settled in New Brunswick.

Trying to trace their movements after has proved impossible but the search continues.

Clarkie
Clarkie
 
Clarkie I hope someone reading this may be able to help you with more information on your grannies brothers. I hope they had a good life and prospered!
 
Hi Everyone,

Having had experience tracing a relative sent to Canada from Middlemore Home. They do have a site with a list of names and also there are records at Birmingham Library which I have had access to my relatives records. He was sent to Canada in 1912 and I managed to find he had emigrated to the USA and joined the US Army in the Second World War. He also returned to England for a short visit in 1946 to visit his mother and returned to the USA and eventually died there.

Dave D
 
There was a very good 2 part mini series made by the ABC in 1992.It was called The Leaving Of Liverpool about child migrants from UK to Australia.
 
Three of my Ancesters were sent from the Middlemore homes to Canada in 1906 on the Siberian.
only little children a brother and sister,the brother joined the Canadian Army only to get killed in WW1
They were lucky they went to very good homes..
I am now in touch with their Grandchildren in Canada
My other Ancestor he also went to a good home,he joined the canadian Army,but sadly he was also
killed in ww1 .

Carol
 
Carolann It's nice to hear your relatives went to good homes. I am sorry to hear they were killed in WW1. We visited a few Canadian cemeteries when we visited the Somme a few years ago. I was stunned at the amount of graves. I am so pleased you are in touch with your family in Canada.
 
Thankyou Wendy it was lovely to find my relatives,it is just so sad the 2 boys were only age 8 and 10 went they went to Canada
then got killed in the war.
 
Of course, there was no investigations into where these poor children were sent - what shocked me when I saw on t.v. the man who'd been sent to Australia in 1970 - well I was living there then and I don't remember hearing about children being sent. All kept quiet.
Sheri
 
My husbands half brother was sent over to Australia at the age of 11 in 1934. (His parents were divorced). His father knew nothing of him going until the day of his departure when he dashed down to Southampton to wave him goodbye, he never saw his son again. My husband was born 10yrs later.

The boy had been promised that he and his friends would ride to school on horses and run free in fields and swim in rivers and pick endless fruit from the trees.................how could 11 year olds resist?

He came back over to England 3 times in the 1990's to stay with us and said very little about his life on the farm at Pinjarra only saying "it was hard, very,very hard"
He died in his 80's.

Was it wrong to send him?....................he made a good life for himself over there..........would he have been able to do the same here?....................an unanaswerable question I think.

The last children to be sent to Australia were in the 1970's from Cornwall.
 
Rowan a very thought provoking post I just still find it hard to understand. I suppose it was of the time......still so many mistakes!!
 
In my opinion it was totally wrong,these children who were sent usually had relatives here who knew nothing until it was to late,
you say that he made a good life for himself,well if he was the sort of person to make a good life for himself he would have done it anyway,i am so pleased that you and your husband did get to meet him
 
One of my relatives was one of these children. My Great Uncle George, from my mothers side, was "Sold" to a farm in Canada when he was a boy to work there. It must have been terrifying for him but eventually he made a life there growing up and marrying the farmers daughter and eventually inheriting the farm. He went to the French part near winnipeg and I remember meeting him once as a child when he came back to the UK for a visit and i remember that he had nearly lost all the English he originally spoke and now spoke mainly French.

He never returned to the UK after that and i have not seen or heard from his children.
 
throughout history in this country various governments have abused their authority when it has come to orphans or homeless children, many were transported on fictitious or spurious criminal charges for the re-population of our colonies. Then when this became impossible they resorted to the tragedies we see unfolding from later history, this of course was happening before the first world war, as well as after the second. governments abusing their powers are nothing new of course recognizing and apologizing is, this of course does very little or nothing really for the abused.
 
If you have a Canada Child Migrant in your family you are able to submit your child's story for an anthology to be published later this year,

A Special Edition Anthology IV Book, to be published later this summer by Canadian Stories magazine, is a great opportunity for us to tell our stories and have them grouped together in one book, to acknowledge and honour our Home Children, and a wonderful keepsake and resource for 2010 Year of the British Home Child.

There is no limit for the length of your story and no deadline given yet. You can include picture(s) which will be printed in black and white for the Anthology.

Please let me know if you are interested and I will give you the email addresses of those organizing it

George
 
My fathers Gt Uncle was sent by Middlemores in 1896 age 12 to Nova Scotia. This according to his admission page, was due to truanting and mixing with bad types. I have spent a lot of time tracking his movements. He appeared to have a good life, no children, two wives. He did manage to contact his family during WW2 and would send food parcels here to England. He never came back.
regards
Amanda
 
we are also building a comprehensive database on www.britishhomechildren.org of all child migrants sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc, anybody is welcome to add a child to the database or claim a child currently in there, at the moment there are 9385 children listed, some have a descendant listed in their 'record' on there but the majority do not,

We are inputting names every day so please check the site regularly.

The sad thing is that some of these kids died in the war, died single, or did not have children so even if you are only distantly linked to a child migrant please think about claiming them

Thanks

George
 
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