Hunt is on for records of children shipped to Canada for ‘fresh start’
A search has been launched for the descendants of up to 15,000 vulnerable children from Scotland’s children’s homes who were shipped to Canada in a programme of forced emigration and cheap labour that lasted almost 100 years.
Researchers in Canada are supporting families to secure the records of those transported by charities, including Quarriers and Barnardo’s.
The transportation was done as part of the British Home Children programme that ran from 1863 until the 1970s.
The programme was originally designed to free children from the hardships of the slums and the poorhouse and give them a fresh start in the clean air of rural Canada that was desperate for a workforce.
While some did fare well, many young ones suffered further trauma after being split from their brothers and sisters. In some cases, they were told they were unwanted and even that their parents were dead, according to campaigners.
British Home Children Advocacy & Research Association (BHCARA) founder Lori Oschefski said parents were sometimes told of their child’s departure long after they had set sail.
She said: “The British Home Children were sent away to work, some never to see their families again.
“Our mission is to bring the true stories to light and to reunite families with the truth.”
Ms Oschefski was motivated to set up the group following the experience of her own mother who was shipped to Canada from a workhouse in Herefordshire aged just two.
She has helped at least 12 families in Scotland connect with the facts surrounding their ancestors and plug huge, often painful, gaps in their histories. “When we look back on our histories, it may not be pretty, but it helps to put the pieces together,” she said.
Children aged between six and 16 were transported. The older ones were sent to work as indentured domestic servants and farm labourers.
Both the British and Canadian governments supported the programme and paid a grant less than £2 for every child resettled. Canada paid bonuses to homes that provided large volumes of children.
More than 100,000 children were sent from the UK in total. Only a handful are known to be still alive.
They include John Vallance, originally from Ayr, who arrived on a farm in Quebec in 1939 aged 13 after being housed with Barnardo’s following the death of his mother. Mr Vallance has since been reunited with relatives in Scotland.
alison.campsie@jpress.co.uk