British Home Child Day
The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers a number of courses covering immigration, emigration and migration. For some of our ancestors and extended family members, they seldom stayed in the same place for multiple generations. These major, life-changing decisions were made as a result of multiple factors, which varied dramatically depending on their unique situations. For some young migrants, these decisions were made for them. This is true for the Child Migration schemes from Britain. We have designed a course which specifically explores this topic. Research: Child Migration from Britain From the Course Description:This course provides an overview of the history of child migration from Britain and an introduction to the records that can be accessed to research them. Britain has a very long history of exporting children. Child migration from Britain occurred over a period of nearly 350 years through various private and government sponsored emigration schemes. This course is a good starting point for anyone who knows, or even suspects, that they have a British child migrant ancestor in their family tree. Children were sent to the American Colonies, the West Indies, Australia, Canada, Southern Rhodesia, South Africa and New Zealand. The major recipients of children, based upon numbers, were Canada and Australia. The course is structured to address research in each of the receiving countries, in Britain and from the sending agencies themselves. The course concludes with a case study which uses a child who migrated to Canada during a time period when child migration to Canada was near its peak.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of these schemes was for the British Home Children. This was a difficult time period and impacted many families – for both those who were sent to a new land and those who were left behind. The young migrants sent to Canada are covered in Modules 2 and 6 of this course. On September 28th, we remember the estimated 100,000 children who were sent out to Canada to find a better life than what they were leaving behind. This date was declared by the Government of Canada as explained here in the announcement for the British Home Child Day Act, 2011. To begin your British Home Children Research, start by checking these web pages:Home Children, 1869-1932 – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Canada Home Children British Sources (National Institute) – FamilySearch Wiki Canada Home Children Bibliography and Suggested Reading (National Institute) – FamilySearch Canada Home Children – FamilySearch Wiki Be…