British Home Children: Their Stories

Compiled by the British Isles Family History Society of Ottawa (BIFHSGO)

A collection of true stories about the lives of some British Home Children that demonstrates their strength of character, sense of purpose and good humor that enabled them to overcome adversity and contribute a positive and lasting legacy to their new country.

The stories reflect the contributors’ recollections of their ancestors and the times and conditions in which they lived. Inevitably there will be inconsistencies in details, and readers are encouraged to accept the stories in the spirit in which they are presented.

British Home Children were those who had been admitted into a Philanthropic Home, Union Workhouse or Industrial School between 1869 and 1948, from families that had suffered a great tragedy or were dysfunctional. Many of these children were then brought to Canada where they were received into a Distributing Home for settlement as farm laborers and domestics.

Contents include:

• Dedication
• Foreword
• Errata 
• Introduction
• Letter from Phil McColeman, Member of Parliament for Brant
• Acknowledgements
• Their stories:
  • Joseph Albert Bampton and Mary Jane Windle
  • Alfred Bartholomew
  • Richard Patrick Callaghan and Catherine McKenna
  • Jenny, Annie and John Coggins
  • Kenneth Donovan
  • Thomas, Elizabeth and Josephine Duncan
  • Henry Gilchrist
  • Edward Graham
  • George H Hall
  • John Henry Harmer
  • Edith Millwood Jeavons
  • William Kelly
  • Joseph Lorente
  • George and Charles Masterman
  • Robert Spence Mitchell
  • Frank Moir
  • John Arthur Monk
  • Edward Murphy
  • Annie Myhill
  • Stephen Sargent Claude Nunney
  • W George Pinchin
  • Albert Henry Powell
  • Frederick Rose
  • John Harold Russell
  • Otto Alexander Francis Spindler
  • Norman Swaebe
  • Francis Henry Vant
  • Edwin John Reginald Wakeham
  • Jesse and Emily Walker
  • Robert Webster
• Appendix A: Summary of Sending Agencies
• Index Browse the Index

Reviews:

• "I just got through reading this book. It's a wonderful compilation of stories. Now I really feel like following up on my grandfather's experience in Canada."     - Sandra Lloyd Schappert, Home Child descendant.

Book details:
224 Pages
8.5 X 11" (second printing 2024)
Coil bound
Published by Global Heritage Press, Milton, 2010 
ISBN 978-1-926797-47-2 (Softcover)