British Home Children

[aitkin]

Thanks Linda.
I have the death records you speak of, but had not thought of checking who the informants were.  Emily and Joseph had likely moved on by that time as they would have been in their early to mid 30's by then.
The David Fife mentioned in Mrs Aitken's notice would likely have been Scott's nephew, as his father, also David and Scott's brother-in-law, had died in 1901.

I am familiar with both sites you show.
Windermere Area also shows Thomas Aitkin, notice the spelling, who was my G Grandfather and was Scott's brother.  Spelling in our line got changed during Thomas' lifetime and stuck.  I tried giving genealogy corrections to the site, but the document on-line is static and they could not make the corrections.  But they did take my information to file.
My Grandfather John James Aitkin as well as farming, was a lay preacher and had preached at the two Methodist Churchs shown in the one picture in this document.
Langstaff site -  I somewhat regularly interact with Jack Langstaff with updates and corrections.  He has supplied me with info and pictures for several years.

Thanks again for your investigation.

[aitkin]

Thank you Jorose for your hint to try the Bracebridge Library for an Obituary lookup. 
I took your advice and they were able to locate his obituary.
Unfortunately it did not reveal anything about his family, only his sea-faring occupation prior to his farming for 42 years.   
They were unable to find an obituary for Margaret, his wife.
But I'll keep on truckin' and find something somewhere.
Thanks again.

[Gen List Lass]

Casting aside the possibility of them being BHC, I would have thought they were maybe distant relatives being sent out to a better life with a decent family in Canada.

Life in the Shetlands was often very hard and if these children were either orphaned or from very large families, there is this possibility. The fact that he is a lay preacher adds credence to this scenario.

I would expand the Shetland family tree to see if there are any links.

Gen in Northumberland UK

[J.J.]

Can't find anything on your search, but was wondering if this is your Scott mentioned here as if it is there's loads of information on brother Thomas ( Agnes Leslie Fife) & sister Ellen/Helen (David Alexander Fife).
http://windermerearea.ca/Windermere%20Tweedsmuir.pdf
Mystery , the children...wish I had more time to investigate further....Do know that all children are not yet indexed on the Collections Canada database, as we have found some recently that weren't listed years ago. This does not mean they are home children...just that more information may be forthcoming in the future...
J.J.

[aitkin]

Thank you both Gen List Lass and J.J. for your replys and interest in my post.
Gen List Lass : Your thoughts of the children possibly being distant relatives deserves some thought.  The thing is the children are listed as being born in England, plus the names Joseph and Emily do not appear to be "Aitken" of "Jamieson" given names in the past.  I did a quick search of both Surnames on Bayanne, using Joseph and Emily, and came up with none for Aitken.  Under Jamieson there were no Emily's and 18 Joseph's, none of which fit the birth date.  Ten of the 18 Joseph's under Jamieson, were born prior to my Joseph, so maybe there is a match there so far as being named after a Jamieson Uncle or Grandfather.
The Lay Preacher I mentioned was my Grandfather, who was a nephew of the Scott, who's line I'm trying to get straight.
J.J. : Yes that is my Scott in the Windermere site and that Thomas Aitkin is my G Grandfather.  There are many errors in the Thomas Aitkin info which I forwarded to the owners of the site.  Unfortunately the document is static and cannot be changed, but my corrections were accepted to file as information.  Their information is pretty much what I started out with about 15 years ago. Perhaps from the same source.
Thanks again to you both.

[J.J.]

ah, I see that Linda had already shown you that site...forgot to do a find on page search before posting it...Sorry Linda..harder to follow when in 2 pages...
Am just adding the census images for Linda's info in case I get back to it one day, or someone wants to see them
In 1891 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1891/001081-119.02-e.php?person_id_nbr=2134423
Emily "Adkin" in 1901 says Feb (Fey?) 28th birth 1884 entry
 http://www.automatedgenealogy.com/census/ViewFrame.jsp?id=49476&highlight=47
1911 has another clue with her name but is it a "G" ?? says birth month July still a domestic & single 1884 entry
http://www.automatedgenealogy.com/census11/View.jsp?id=139949&highlight=32
I also tried finding Joseph again, under all versions of the surname....no luck