Indi,
You are welcome to stick your nose in.
I can use all the help I can get on this one. Your expertise on British home children is really useful. I'll certainly follow up on the Barnardo links. If they are really sticky about releasing info only to next-of-kin, I may have a bit of a problem. My friend is not a computer person, but perhaps we could get around that with an old-fashioned letter. I wonder how much information there would be about William's mother in the Barnardo's records? It is still his mother and her stint in prison that is the major point of interest.
I am almost certain that the 1901 arrival in Canada is the right William Stanley, but I am a bit puzzled as how he could have made it from Liverpool to Ontario in 10 days.
I checked the 1911 census for Carleton/Nepean and there was no William Stanley, so he could well have moved on to the Prairies by then (where I found him).
Thank you very much for finding him in 1901. Don't know how I missed that. On second thought, perhaps I do know, I was really stupid
and assumed that he would be where he eventually settled. I know better,
it was very silly of me. It was a good thing that you found him, I might have forgotten to re-check that census.
Thanks again and you can stick your nose into my problems anytime.
Cheers,
Carmela