British Home Children

Today I heard a presentation about British Home Children.  It is, of course, a story I have never heard before,   being unaware of Canadian history.

 This is a true historical account of children being emigrated to Canada from Britain between 1870 and 1957.

100,000 British Home Children (alleged orphans) were sent to Canada by over 50 British Child Care organizations.  These 4-15 year old children worked as indentured farm laborers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old.  The organizations professed a dominant motive of providing these children with a better life than they would have had in Britain, but they had other motives.  These organizations profited when they sold these children to Canadian farmers.  Siblings in care in Britain were separated from their families and each other.  Siblings were separated from each other when they were sent to Canada.  Most never saw each other again.  Many spent their lives trying to identify their parents and find their siblings and most were unsuccessful.

  

There was a somewhat similar effort here in the United States when 200,000 orphaned and abandoned city children were distributed on the Orphan Trains to families in 45 states, also often used as farm laborers.  This movement took place between 1853 and 1947, run by the Children's Aid Society.   I can only hope they were not sold for profit, as the British Home Children were. I can find no evidence that that is the case.

On Canada's part,  this is a historical past that plays heavily into  the makeup of the population today.  The estimates are that at least ten percent of the Canadian population are descendants of  British Home Children.

At this point in time, there is also a BHC registry that helps these ancestors try to find their original family members.

This is one of those windows into the historical past that is very sad indeed!