Author Topic: Children's Friend Society  (Read 3116 times)

Offline maria99

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Re: Children's Friend Society
« Reply #9 on: Sunday 03 September 17 17:52 BST (UK) »
Many thanks Waddy :)
The Thomas and Ellen buried at Wynberg Cemetary are indeed my ancesters.
We also cannot get back any further.
I am trying to find the documents of the Childrens Friend Society . Not just the yearly reports but the actual day to day running of the home and the individual reports on the children and where they came from etc.  They must surely be in the archives somewhere.
No luck so far .

Greetings,
Maria


Offline Alison Geer

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Re: Children's Friend Society
« Reply #10 on: Friday 19 April 19 09:46 BST (UK) »
Hi folks

I've been wanting to know what was in Geoff Blackburn's book so thanks, Waddy, for clearing it up! I despair because, as you say, the boys sent out by Children's Friend Society were mostly destitute so tracing my ancestry back from 1822 has had me stumped for years. Guess I was hoping there'd be a rainbow leading me to more info on how the boys came to be on those ships..

My G G Grandfather came out in 1833 on the BOLTON (GEER- WILLIAM H) and fortunately thanks to this info I managed to trace my GG Grandmother's grave on the farm where William was sent to work as an 11 year old apprentice. By all accounts he was happy working on the farm (still run by the same family 7 generations later!) so that gives me comfort when I think of him as a frightened, poor 10 year old. :'(

I have found 2 possible matches for my William but nothing exact. As the society preferred to send boys from 14 I'm not sure whether his DOB stated on his death certificate  (11 Nov 1822) is accurate as that would've made him 10 on sailing and 11 on arrival. Not even sure it's worth asking someone to do the 2 lookups as it won't confirm anything. I'd need to find a match for anything to be certain.

Take care and please post if you find any more info on these boys!