Child Emigrant

[Mary Crane]

I have discovered in my family tree an 8 year old whose parents had both died, who emigrated to Canada sometime after 1886.  I know he married in 1899 in Kingston, Ontario.

Was it a common practice for orphans to be sent to Canada at that time,  and who would have cared for him when he arrived?

Mary

[J.A.M.]

Google 'Bernardo Children'.

[KarenM]

Hi Mary,

It is likly he was a "home child".  There is a Home Child Database at Library and Archives Canada.

Between 1869 and the early 1930s, over 100,000 children were sent to Canada from Great Britain during the child emigration movement.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/home-children/index-e.html

There were different groups that sent children here, Quarriers and Middlemore, Marchmount, Fegan as well as Barnardo's.

Another great site for information is

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

Karen

[Mary Crane]

Many thanks to you both.  I will follow up those links.

Mary

[Mary Crane]

Hello again

I have found him!  It is so sad but both his parents and siblings had died although I would have thought an uncle or aunt could have taken him in.  I hope he was treated better than a lot of children who were sent to Australia!

Mary

[J.J.]

There were many children who came to abusive homes...or they were made to work extremely hard. My own grandfather was harshly strict with his ownchildren...and over a dozen children had to share 3 toys and toil on the farm all day... What these home children probably missed most of all was a sense of family... 
Unfortunately the children who were adopted or taken in by kind families did not write books or give accounts, so we hear only of the worst. We have found good and decent families who seem to have cared for the children as though they were kin....
Here is the Home children site on the rootschat Canada board.  I have not added this thread, as we haven't a name.
It is locked to replies, but I will always open it to add new information or resources.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,355348.0.html

[Mary Crane]

Hello JJ

This child was in a very distant branch of my family so I am not researching him in depth.  However, His name was Joseph James Tanswell b 1878 Shrewsbury, Shropshire.  He travelled on the ship Sardinian  the year following his mother's death (his father having died previously).   He arrived at Quebec August 1887.  He was in Miss McPherson's Group - destination Stratford, Ontario.  There were 46 boys and girls in the group.  Joseph married Violet Marion Groves in Kingston in 1899.  At the time of his marriage he was an Insurance Agent which leads me to think he probably had a reasonable education. 
You are right in saying we only hear the worst stories so must bear in mind that there were good people who took these orphans.

Mary

[J.J.]

don't mind me, but when it comes to home children we like to try & find more if we can for those descendants who may search them out...

I see that Joseph couldn't remember his mom's forename...He likely just remembered her as "mother" being that he was so young when he lost her...awe... But her surname was Griffith...were the witnesses surname of Griffith related as well?
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maryc/front99.htm
Oh, wait a minute, the bride didn't have her mother's forename down either ...I wonder if she was a home child as well...I see no Collett/Groves marriage, or anything close on the freebmd, so perhaps she got her mom's surname mixed up as well. I also looked for her name under births circa 1882 and I don't see it there either....
~~~~~
Just found her on the IGI...she was only 15, not 17 as stated, at marriage, so perhaps a homechild as well
Violet Groves b. July 24, 1884/christened May 1, 1890 Birmingham, Warwick, England
Parents Joseph Groves & Mariae Collett
Her sisters Florentia ( 1882  )  & Edith ( 1878  ) were christened the same day
an elusive lot as they don't show on the freebmd nor 1881 

[J.J.]

For those searching Josephs parents were married as Harriet Griffiths ( d.1884) & Herbert Willliam Tanswell ( d. 1884), brother Herbert William b.1880 d. 1882 & sister Mary Kate b.1881.  d.1881...awe he'd lost all family 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Found Violet ( father is down as William rather than Joseph ...I guess because there is now a Joseph son)...she's back with her family in 1901...where she really is 17...and so not a homechild...but no sign of Joseph James...perhaps the marriage was annulled due to her young age.
http://www.automatedgenealogy.com/census/ViewFrame.jsp?id=56459&highlight=46

Joseph James in 1891 Waterloo North- is a domestic at age 14  in the home of Alexander & Lavinia Smith
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1891/001081-119.02-e.php?person_id_nbr=2882510