FindmyPast launches global British Home Children database

From FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

First global collection for tracing British Home Children launched by Findmypast

• New collaboration between Canadian and UK organisations sees creation of first major collection of records pertaining to Home Children.
• Over 130,000 British children were sent to British Overseas Territories as part of forced migration scheme between 1860s and 1970s.
• Offered for free, the records will allow estimated 4m+ descendants of Home Children to trace their ancestors for the first time.
• Collection launched on Findmypast at Rootstech, in collaboration with The National Archives, British Library, Library and Archives Canada, and Home Children Canada.

A major new collection of Home Children records has launched today on family tree website, Findmypast, which will allow millions of descendants of British Home Children to trace their ancestors for free – many for the first time.

Created in collaboration with organisations across the UK and Canada, including The National Archives, The British Library, Library and Archives Canada, and Home Children Canada, the new collection features a vast and varied range of records which tell the stories of those who were part of the forced child migrant scheme in place from the 1860s up to the 1970s.

The collection, launched at Rootstech, will be a growing repository with records added on an ongoing basis. It currently includes workhouse records, Juvenile Inspection Reports, Home Children Board of Guardian Records and emigration reports, while future updates are likely to see historical newspapers, migration records, workhouse and institutional records, periodicals and military records added.

Over 130,000 children, now known as ‘British Home Children’, were sent across the Commonwealth, in particular to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Only 12% of these children were ‘true orphans’ - many came from charitable homes, workhouses, or destitute and struggling families. They were usually fostered into families when they reached their destinations to be used as unpaid domestic or farming labour.

However, abuse was widespread in a system which offered little protection to the children and few investigations into the care they received from their foster families. Many were relocated several times during their childhood, and often separated from their siblings.

Historically, descendants of Home Children have struggled to trace their roots, with most records held in private archives and inaccessible to the public. This collection will provide an open-access, centralised set of resources for descendants to trace their forced migrant ancestors back to the UK and their birth families and add them directly to their family tree on Findmypast.

Sarah Bush, Findmypast Managing Director, said:

“We’re extremely proud to launch this groundbreaking new collection, which will allow millions more people to uncover the stories of their forced migrant ancestors. It’s an incredibly poignant and complex part of our Commonwealth history, and these records will shed light on the lives and experiences of the British Home children, which have so often been overlooked or concealed.

“At Findmypast, we believe that every story matters, and we hope to offer renewed hope of discovering ancestors and even new connections to families across the globe – easily and completely for free.”

Roger Kershaw, Head of Strategic Operations and Volunteers at The National Archives, said:

“Many of the children dispatched from the UK to Canada were from children’s homes and had their past erased before being used as cheap labour, with boys working on farms and girls as domestic servants.

“Records from The National Archives reveal some of the government decisions leading to the emigration of children as young as one-year-old, including correspondence from the Home Office, Ministry of Health, Local Government Board and Colonial Office, with those bodies leading the policy, such as Dr Barnado’s.

“We are pleased to be able to contribute to this collection which will provide new avenues for research into the story of the British Home Children.”

Lori Oschefski, an expert on British Home Children, President of the charity Home Children Canada, and a descendant of a Home Child herself, said:

“This new database is significant because it fills crucial gaps in our understanding of Home Children's histories. These gaps hindered comprehensive research efforts, but now, with access to previously unavailable data, we can uncover deeper insights into the experiences and journeys of Home Children.

“As the daughter of a Home Child, I cannot overstate the importance of this new collection for our community. While I conducted significant research for my mother before her passing, accessing records was challenging, and the information in this index was unavailable to me. This collection will revolutionize the search for information on British Home Children, offering understanding, closure, and peace of mind to millions of affected descendants whose personal histories were stripped away by migration programs.”

Discover the collection for free on Findmypast: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/page/british-home-children 

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry finds that the overseas child migration system was abusive

Scottish Judge Lady Smith has released her first volume of findings as part of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, looking at the issue of child migration to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the abuse that resulted for some as a consequence.

Child migration: a shameful chapter in Scotland’s history
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry publishes eighth case study findings

From the latter part of the nineteenth century until well into the second half of the twentieth century many thousands of children were sent away from Scotland as child migrants by means of a system that was inherently abusive.

Lady Smith has today Tuesday 21 March, published the first volume of her findings relating to the migration of children from Scotland.

She concludes that child migration is “now rightly regarded as a shameful chapter in our history”, and that “the system itself was abusive and resulted in many children being abused at their destinations”.

The scope and purpose of the case study was to consider evidence about:

• The migration of children from Scotland, primarily to Canada and Australia,
• The nature and extent of any relevant abuse,
• The systems, policies, and procedures relevant to child migration, both domestic and international, their application, and their effectiveness,
• The impact on individuals of being migrated as children, and
• Any related matters.

Lady Smith said: “Although decades have passed since the last shipload of child migrants left our shores, and though apologies have been made, families reunited, and public inquiries conducted in other jurisdictions to examine what happened to their children, it is important to listen to and understand what happened to all child migrants including those from Scotland.

“I am satisfied the child migration system was abusive and it resulted in many children being abused.

“Abuse began at the outset, unacceptable practices being inherent in the systems and procedures applied at the stages of selecting children and making arrangements for their migration.

“It continued in receiving countries and institutions, where children were exposed to harsh and neglectful conditions, used as slave labour, and were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by individuals who owed a duty of care to them.”

The first volume of findings covers, in detail, the histories of former child migrants who provided evidence to SCAI, or whose family members provided evidence.

Volume two, which will be published soon, considers the history, policy, and practices of child migration, with a focus on the Scottish context.

Canada received the majority of child migrants, with an estimated 80,000 children dispatched from the UK to Canada by 1920.

Despite contemporary reports that exposed the failings and abuse in the practice of child migration to Canada, children continued to be migrated there until 1948.

After the Second World War, Australia became the most popular destination for child migration, and between 1912 and 1970 around 7,000 children were migrated from the UK to Australia.

Forty-five individuals came forward to tell the Inquiry about their experiences as child migrants who were sent from Scotland, or as relatives of former child migrants. They also provided evidence about the experiences, at their destinations, of other child migrants.

Lady Smith’s findings can be summarised as follows:

• Abuse began at the outset, unacceptable practices being inherent in the systems and procedures applied at the stages of selection and making arrangements for children’s migration.
• System failures at home and abroad exposed child migrants to a real risk of suffering a wide range of abuses in receiving homes and institutions.
• Many child migrants were abused at the institutions in which they were placed, as were other children; some were abused from the moment of arrival.
• The destinations of child migrants and juveniles were thousands of miles from Scotland, often isolated in remote locations; children’s sense of displacement was exacerbated in cases where they were depersonalised on arrival by, for example, their already limited possessions being taken away from them; girls’ long hair being shaved off; names changed; and all links with family and homeland being severed.
• Some parents who followed their children abroad were not allowed to remove their children from institutional care.
• Children were used as slave labour, including for building works and farming.
• At their destinations, children were physically abused, they were sexually abused, they were emotionally abused, they were subjected to unacceptable practices, and they were neglected.
• Examples of the physical abuse suffered included brutal beatings on heads and bodies with belts, straps, and other implements, such as reinforced straps and canes, pieces of timber, fists, and feet. Some of it was sadistic.
• Children were sexually abused, including by men in holy orders, some being abused in the most appalling and harmful manner.
• Children were sexually abused by members of a paedophile ring.
• Girls had to assist in caring for the elderly, including elderly men suffering from senile dementia. They had to wash their soiled sheets and they had to prepare dead bodies for burial.
• Children were denigrated, insulted, humiliated, and kept in a state of fear.
• Children were neglected. Their clothing was inadequate. They went barefoot even in winter, when they learnt to walk in fresh cow dung to warm their feet. Some had to sleep on verandas even in cold weather. The food was inadequate. They had no, or limited, access to health care. The education afforded to many of them was lamentable.
• Whilst some children settled in the country to which they were migrated and established successful adult lives, even they remained scarred. Memories of abuse continue to haunt them and childhood severance from their roots in Scotland still hurts.

Statements from former child migrants and their family members were taken at private sessions held in Scotland, Australia, the USA, and Canada.

In Australia, members of the Inquiry’s statement taking and witness support teams attended various locations in Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales during two weeks in September 2018, and two weeks in March 2019.

Private sessions were held and statements were taken from a total of 40 former child migrants—23 in the first visit, and 17 in the second.

Hearings were interrupted as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. In total there were 45 days of evidence, 28 between December 2019 and March 2020 and then another 17 between September and October 2020.

During hearings, Lady Smith heard evidence from 40 child migrants

Lady Smith added: “During the case study hearings, I heard of many aspects of the experiences of child migrants that were shocking and distressing.

“I appreciate how challenging it will have been for all witnesses, near and far, to engage with and provide evidence to the Inquiry. I am very grateful to them for their assistance and co-operation and for their valuable contributions."

The first volume of findings has been released at https://www.childabuseinquiry.scot/news/child-migration-volume-1-findings-released-press-release/.

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.