to be put in a home and shipped to a strange place seems a terrible thing to do, though without knowing their background in Shropshire it's hard know what they were leaving behind.
Well at long last i've managed to answer the above...visited the Birmingham Archives today for the first time and would just like to say how helpful and plesent the staff there are
All of the Middlemore records are catalogued (but are to be re-catalogued shortly) and the records vary greatly according to the familys predicament.
I first looked through the Case Book which is a large cloth bound book that lists the names of the people involved (children/parents) date of admittance and destination/departure date to foreign lands.
Next i looked through the Admittance Book which is a very heavy thick leather bound volume that covered "males" between approx 1903 and 1919. everything is in date and case number order so it's easy to work through.
I'll write below what the entry consisted of so anyone else looking for Middlemore information will get an idea of what they may find (though compared to some of the cases i looked at it was quite short, some contained newspaper clippings concerning court cases where the parents were jailed for cruelty, in one case a mother of two young girls who got 6 months hard labour)
"very ragged and dirty, quite the street arabs, body and heads very verminous.
legitimate. yes
Mother dead, father a drunken,lazy,dirty fellow...he has been sent to prison 3 times for cruelty to his boys. the house is in a most filthy state and alive with vermin. boys are in the habit of begging their food and staying out very late at night. no furniture or bedding in the house, they sleep on filthy rags"
the above copied from W.E.B.Kersley's letter of 22nd Sept 04
reccomended and bought here by W.E.B.Kersley......Accepted.
PC Missionary, Shrewsbury.
apart from the boys and fathers names that is the complete entry.
as saddened as i was to find out some of the hardships the children suffered on reaching Canada it's certainly helped to put it into perspective knowing what they left behind !
all i have to do now is read through the individual case notes on my next visit and get the full picture of their final months in England and comments on their record in Canada.
:)Would just like to thank once again all those that helped me get this far (i wouldn't have had a clue) and although i don't want to make it a general offer at this time because my visiting time is limited, if anyone has someone from Middlemore they would like looking for and have their name and year of entry i'll do my best to find any entries there may be for them.
thanks for your interest
best wishes,Tony
