Home Children:Brookes/Brooks

[KarenM]

The middlemore home in Halifax was called Fairview Home.

Here's a link to a great website for the Middlemore Homes.  It has the boys on there.

http://www.bifhsgo.ca/home_children.htm

Karen

[Tony55]

  I have trouble with England at times so Canada i've no chance!  

  I'm pretty certain that none of the children had middle names  as they only have one name on the 1901 census and the 3 birth registrations i've found so far only have the one name.

  The biggest and obviously greatest problem that i can forsee is that they were adopted and didn't retain their birth surname, so being able to access the immigration records (if they survive somewhere) is possibly my best bet!

  Thanks again, best wishes, Tony

 (modified- oh thanks for that, i'll have a look )

[dollylee]

Karen  I tried the 1911 census for all of Canada and couldn't find them anywhere.  I did try variables of the name but still didn't find them.

The website address you gave is the one I found and the one that hopefully, after his email will be able to help him.

I still can't believe they weren't on the 1911.....maybe someone else should check.  It is so sad to think they may have had their names changed.  Hopefully that would be in the records as they were usually followed by the Homes after placement.

dollylee

[jorose]

No luck finding them in 1911 under Brookes or Brooks, no luck spotting them in the WWI records.

I wonder if they perhaps ended up in the US?

[dollylee]

I did try the 1910 U.S. Census but couldn't find anything there either.  Although it might be a good idea to try again, I used exact names because of the number of entries. I also used England as birth Country.....which might have been a mistake.


Info on John T. Middlemore and his homes

http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/children/Organizations/middlemore.html

near the bottom of the page is states:

"Until about 1932, the children were placed in the maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and also in Ontario and Manitoba."

also "More recently, the records from Middlemore homes have been copied and sent to the Library and Archives of Canada."

I wonder if that means full records of each child or just a name record of all the children.

I think Tony will be re-directed there once he gets an answer to his email.

dollylee

[KarenM]

Like dolly said, it seems Library and Archives Canada has some of the records. 

Looks like MS 517/276 Settlement and Reports of Children sent to Canada 1905 A to H (goes to Ernest Brooks) might have some information?

Karen

[J.J.]

Been going crazy looking through 1911 censuses, but all I found was zip. really...   sorry!

[Miss Trees]

Hi Tony,
As a home child descendant I wish you much luck with your research. Part of my grandfather's story (as well as many other personal stories) is in the book 'The Home Children' by Phyllis Harrison ; the background may interest you.

I am not very familiar with the Middlemore homes and I was lucky that we got a lot of information from my grandfather when he was still alive. I will keep my eyes open for you. From what I do know, I think it was unusual for siblings to stay together. They were usually separated and sent to different receiving families. If they were lucky enough to stay together, and if the family 'adopted' them, I suppose it possible they took on the family surname. Your best bet right now is if you can locate any Middlemore records.... which may have names and addresses of families the children were sent to.

I'm sorry if this is a double post, but I'm just linking you to a website which has some pointers for research on Middlemore children (scroll down):
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/children/Organizations/middlemore.html

Best luck!!

PS - from what I have been reading - it seems most likely the Canadian boys ended up in the maritime provinces: Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia... or possibly Ontario or Manitoba. Well that narrows it down... to about half of Canada!
I think 'lower provinces' would be referring to the maritimes.

[dollylee]

Adding to Karen's post #14 if you use the Archives Canada Online Finding Aid of:

http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000592.pdf

This directs you to Middlemore Children's Emigration Homes then scroll down to page 18 you will see:

MS 517/276, Settlement and Reports of Children sent to Canada, 1905:
 A-H. (Starts at B: Ernest Brooks) 

Middlemore Number 54

National Archives of Canada Microfilm Reel Number :  A-2020

This should be the film with information on all three of the boys.

dollylee