THE BRITISH HOME CHILDREN
THE
BRITISH CHILD EMIGRATION SCHEME TO CANADA (1870-1957)
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 labourers and
domestic servants until they were 18 years old. The British Child Care organizations professed a dominant
motive of providing these children with a better life than they would have had
in Britain, but they had other ignoble and pecuniary motives.
The organizations rid themselves of an unwanted segment of their
society and 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.
An unknown number of children ran away from their indentured labour in
Canada to the United States.
Millions of Americans may be descended from British Home Children.
The 4-5 million Canadian/American descendants
of the British Home Children have 20 million British Grandparents, Uncles, and
Aunts. How could this many people
not know they are related to one another?
Their mutual searches have been hampered by the unwillingness of the
childcare organizations to readily release vital personal information.
For the past 10 years, I've
been collecting every bit of information I can about as many British Home
Children as I can and storing this information in the British Home Children
Registry. It is a
comprehensive database of 57,000 British Home Children records. It is the only
multi-sending-organization database of its kind known to exist. It was designed to create an ongoing
legacy to preserve BHC identities in perpetuity, and to help Canadian/American descendants and
their British relatives restore their family ties so cruelly severed by the
organizations involved in the British Child Emigration Scheme to Canada.
|
17/09/1909 – 17/09/1994 A British Home Child |
Perry Snow BA (Hons) MA Psychologist
(Retired) |
|
Exhibit
Frederick Snow 1922 (Age 13) |
Claim your BHC Ancestor
or Create a New Record in the BHC Registry
Request a Search of the BHC
Registry and other Genealogical Sources
|
The British Home
Children RegistryÓ 57,000 British Home
Children Records Sample of Complete BHC Registry Record |
|
4,800
Claimed by Descendants (Claimed
means that a descendant or someone else has contributed detailed information
to a BHC record as well as contact information) 53,000 Unclaimed by Descendants |
|
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE BHC
REGISTRY 4,200 WW1 ORPHAN SOLDIERS 75 BHC to BHC MARRIAGES 1,450 BHC MARRIAGES 400
Isle of Man Records 800 BHC INFORMALLY ‘ADOPTED BY’ THEIR MASTERS 200 BHC WHO DIED WHILE ‘IN CARE’ |
Visitors since March
30, 2000
Page Last Modified on January 19, 2012
Perry
Snow BA (Hons) MA
Clinical Psychologist (Retired)
Calgary
Alberta Canada
Email: Perry Snow