I am so grateful for all the help I have received so far in tracing Winifred. The story continues..........I emailed a chap who is researching the history of this institution and he has entitled it 'The Home of the Friendless: A child saving institution gone wrong'! To be honest, that is putting it mildly. He sent me his findings thus far and they make gruesome, gruesome reading. It was run by a madly religious zealot of a woman who specialised in picking up the homeless; 'fallen' women; single mothers; and children whose parents needed a brief respite to sort themselves out etc. I could go on...and on..and....on. The home in Winnipeg closed in 1929 (there were several dotted about apparently) and he tells of elderly people from just a few years ago who would wake screaming in terror because of the time they spent in this institution.
I emailed the photo I have just received of Winifred and he was able to identify the place straight away and thought that because she was wearing white, she probably worked either in the kitchen or the nursery.
I will have to wait and see if he can give me any clue as to what happened to her after 1929. I am willing to search but I understand that it is quite difficult to access fairly recent Canadian records. I am trying to sort the story out in my head so may I share my queries with you?
1) Why did her mother, Adelaide Delma Clark (listed as 'married') travel to Canada from England in 1906 with just Winnie?
2) Why didn't her husband George Alfred Clark and their son Reginald Sydney go with her?
3) Why, in 1908 did Reginald travel out with a party from an orphanage aged only 8 years?
4) I have discovered Adelaide remarried to a William Hodgins in 1910 and is listed on the Canadian census 1911 with him and with Reginald so when and why did Winnie end up in this terrible place?
5) Adelaide and William Hodgins had a son - Wilfred/Wilfrid born c1912 but I can't find his birth or anything else on him, yet I know he lived long enough to be with his parents into their old age. What happened to him?
6)Reginald Sydney is shown as having served in the CEF but then he too
seems to have disappeared, so where did he end up?
I will try and attach the photo of Winifred - I wondered why she was so small and discovered that most of the inmates were - it was due to malnutrition!
Poor, poor people. Poor little Winifred.
Have tried to attach the photo with no success. I'm no computer wizard so Help needed please!
