The J. W. C. Fegan British Home Children Newsletter Collection 1877 to 1920

By J. W. C. Fegan, W.Y. Fullerton, D.D., etal

The collection includes ALL surviving Fegan Homes newsletters that were published between 1877 and 1920.  1534 searchable pages in PDF format.

What you'll discover in the newsletters
Includes many lists of the boys in care, also "old boys" who graduated through the system, and sponsors. Success stories of individual Home Children were written to encourage support of Mr. Fegan's programs as were sad and often detailed stories of boys in need of assistance. Updates are often included about "Old Boys" who continued to help the Fegan Homes with donations and other assistance when they became adults, and stories of how individual "old boys" grew to be productive citizens of Canada.

The Collection
Fegan's newsletters were published under three different titles during this period:

• Christian Shield 1877-1881
• The Rescue 1885-1901
• Loving & Serving 1905-1920 

This collection is essential for everyone with an interest in the Fegan Homes in particular or the British Home Children movement in general. The narratives shine a light on the human cost of the industrial revolution and J.W.C. Fegan's efforts to deal with its side effects. Similarly, this is a fine reference for those who seek insights into the conditions and norms in rural and urban Canada that encouraged importation of indentured and contracted children during this time period.

This collection is provided in a searchable PDF format. Pages can be printed at high resolution Every page has a source citation included in the bottom margin for future reference. All of the newsletters are in a single PDF file so that researchers can search all newsletters with a single search or browse through them one by one. For those seeking a specific newsletter, there is a chronological set of bookmarks in the left margin that are hot-linked to specific issues.

This is a snip of the top portion screen illustrating the front page of a newsletter and the links to individual issues that are listed in the left margin. Researchers can scroll down the newsletters (1534 pages), or search all newsletters for any word using the "Find" box at the top of the screen, or use the provided links to specific issues.

How the collection was gathered
The Fegan Homes newsletters project was initiated by Douglas Fry, a Canadian authority on the Fegan Homes who kindly loaned his collection of Fegan newsletters. He also arranged for the Fegans to loan issues that they had that Fry didn't, resulting in a compilation of 1534 pages of newsletters that span 44 years.

Though this is the most complete set of Fegan Home's newsletters known, this collection is missing issues that may not exist anywhere. Fegan newsletters varied in frequency, beginning as a monthly, then quarterly, and then back to monthly. There were times when shortages of time and resources caused printing lapses. Those lapses are discussed by Mr. Fegan, usually with an appeal for subscribers to help out with a donation. Fund raising appears to have been a never ending activity.

1534 Pages
Published by Global Heritage Press, Milton, 2013
ISBN 978-1-926797-76-2 (pdf on CD edition)