I have been contacted by someone (I’ll call her X) who has a DNA match to myself and a cousin. The amount of the match means the link is probably a good few generations back. X is descended from a British Home Child sent to Canada - but there is extremely limited information about her origins, so I'm hoping some of you can help with fresh places to search or some fresh insight.
Here is the info so far that X has collated, and given me permission to post here:
Millicent Alice Cox was born August 12, 1875 in England. Family history tells that she was an orphan who traveled to Canada at an early age, and was adopted. Some of her older children refer to her as Millicent Bellamy. I had never been able to find her on a Canadian census record under either name.
I can’t find a birth record that I am sure is Millicent Cox. I can’t find any documentation of her parent’s names.
I did find a Millicent Cox listed on the passenger record of the sailing ship Sarmatian. She departed Liverpool, England on June 10, 1880, sailing for Canada in the company of Maria Rye. Millicent arrived in Quebec on June 21, 1880. From there, Maria Rye took the children in her charge to “Our Western Home” at Niagra on the Lake, Ontario. Canadian citizens applied to this home (and later others) and arranged to employ or adopt children.
I contacted a researcher* who is building a database of the Maria Rye children in Canada and he gave me this information:
“The 1880 Annual Report for Miss Rye’s Home for Destitute Little Girls contains an entry (no 29) which I believe may be your grandmother “M.B., aged 7; illegitimate, mother in very bad health. To Mr R.B., Farmer, Clarke near Newtonville, Ontario. Child adopted”. You will note that her initials are given as M.B. rather than M.C. – this sort of mistake sometimes happened as a result of a printer’s error, when the Annual Report was printed, but in this case may just be simple confusion because I note that the surname of the family that adopted her began with the letter “B”. I am also fairly confident that this entry refers to your grandmother because I have matched up all of the other children between the ships manifest and the entries in this Annual Report. To discover more about the Farmer with the initials R.B. who adopted her you will need to search the 1881 census, starting with Clarke near Newtonville, Ontario."
Millicent Cox is also referred to as Millicent Bellamy, but my mother didn’t know if she was born Bellamy and adopted by Cox or the other way around. With the researcher’s information, I was able to finally find Millicent on the Canadian census by looking for an “R. Bellamy” in the rather small farming community of Clarke, Ontario on the 1881 Canadian census. I found her, in Richard Bellamy’s household, but her name is spelled wrong on the census, which is why I never found her previously. She is listed as “Melissa Cox” in the index to the census records.
I contacted some descendants of the Bellamy line. Shortly after Millie arrived at the Bellamy farm, they moved to Selkirk, Manitoba and continued farming. The 1891 Canadian census shows Millie with the Bellamy household. She is listed as “Milla Bellamy” in the census index, which is again why I couldn’t find her previously on a Canadian census.
On July 16, 1984 Millie married George Francis Prescott in Winnipeg. Millie lists her parents as Francis Cox (I don’t know who this is) and Sarah Parson (her adoptive mother - Richard Bellamy’s wife.)
Census records indicate they moved to the US in 1986. It appears they moved to North Dakota for a brief time, but moved to Bemidji, MN before the 1900 US census was taken. The 1910 US census shows them in Minot, where they remained until their deaths.
Millie’s death certificate states she died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Minot on August 28, 1943. Her obit included the info that 'Mrs. Francis, whose maiden name was Millicent Alice Cox, was born in Manchester, England, August 12, 1876. She was 2 years old when she was brot [sic] to Winnipeg, Man. Where she was reared. Her marriage to Mr. Francis [a veterinarian] was on July 12, 1894, in Winnipeg. Two years later they came to Minto, N.D. [sic] where they lived 2 years before moving to Bemidji, Minn. From Bemidji they came to Minot in 1902 [?] and Minot had been Mrs. Francis’ home continuously from that year until her passing.
*As the researcher is living, I’ll just give the initials C.S. as I think Maria Rye researchers will know who this is.
continued in next post
