Genealogy Chat

nudge for later ref. RIta

Found this thread very interesting. I read the book Empty Cradles and it was heartbreaking. I also bought the DVD The Leaving Of Liverpool which is just as sad. My husbands two great aunts were shipped to Australia when their parents died. Their brother ran away to sea so he didn't have to go. The two girls eventually returned to England but one of them never spoke to her brother again. She blamed him for not saving them from going away even though he was only Fifteen at the time. It's all so sad. Maureen

I have just read your thread and I am so shocked they could do this to children but to be honest what the goverment and social services do/did don't surprise me at all and I took names of the books and will try and get them to read

Adding reply for future reference........may need

Thanks George Will check these out. Cathy

Nudge so I can find this later.

George this is so sad I got goosepimples.I hope your thread will help some people. Regards from Anne.

thanks George, I will check the sites out and keeps my fingers crossed Louisa x

bookmarking this for my list Cleo

interesting reading - new to me. thanks, Marion

nudge so that I do not loose this thread. Irene

Gill No, I don't think those in authority will ever learn....although we no longer send our burdensome children to the other side of the world, the present Care system for children is nearly as awful, in my opinion. Social workers (or rather, their bosses) making arbitrary and incomprehensible judgments about vulnerable children, taking some away in circumstances which don't seem to warrant it, and leaving other children with abysmal parents or carers, only to blame each other and everybody else, when that child fetches up murdered, (by its parents or carers.) I have personbal knowledge of several youngish adults, who have been through the 'modern' care system in Britain. All are damaged by their experiences but no-one seems to care. Indeed, the figure of 150,000 British Home children which is widely quoted, is really the tip of the iceberg. Some estimates put the figure at nearer 1 million - records were not taken in the 1800s, mostly. OC

Another book is Empty Cradles by Margarer Humphreys. UK price 7-99 (Corgi Books). Makes harrowing reading, will move you to tears and anger. I found this entry in a school log book, dated 25 Feb 1895 Geo @ Wm ******* left to go to America - both quiet solid, well behaved boys. No one knows for certain the true estimate of children who went, but 150,000 may be just the tip of the iceberg. Don't expect too much help in this, many of the papers have been destroyed. Per-haps to stop the children claiming compensation from the British Govt. EMR

nudge to bookmark

bookmarking for future reference,i had no idea any of this ever went on its heartbreaking. peppa

I'll have to take a look at these sites.Thanks. Viv

Well, Gill, I feel the same as you do, obviously. Where I live (Cornwall) they sent the last children to Australia in 1977. That is less than 30 years ago, when I had young children of my own.Cornwall County Social Services recently made a public apology for what was done to these children, who were in their guardianship. To be fair, Dr Barnardoes at least, has tried to do something towards reparation for these children, by opening their case files. But it wasnt JUST Dr Barnardoes, it was every do-gooder in the land had a hand in this, including both the C of E and the RC Churches, and we know that many British boys were sent to the unspeakable Farms run by the Catholic Church. No-one ever checked on these children, once they were safely out of the way and in most cases they were little more than indentured slaves, unable to leave their 'home' without the permission of DB or the Church, or whoever was their legal guardian, until they were 21. OC

Bookmarked for future reference. JoJo

Paul It may be the case that by the 1950s, children were NOT being told that their parents were dead, and that parents were not being told their children were dead - but children have been shipped out to the colonies since 1850, and certainly these earlier children were OFTEN told such lies. If you get the chance, read Lost Children of the Empire. This is a scholarly work with many case histories. It does not make pretty reading and the Authorities come out of it with dirt on their hands. I accept that your experiences were not those detailed in this book, and for that, I am very glad for you - no child should have to go through what many of these children went through. Thank God things have changed. OC

Hi OC, From the early 50's untill the late 60's I witnessed a handful of parents arrive to pick up their children who had been placed in care several or sometimes many years earlier. This normally occurred at the time you were to be released from the Home. We averaged 60 to 80 boys in care at any one time during my stay and we were never told that our parents were dead. In fact we were told absolutely nothing. Remember the laws have all changed in the last 20 or so years now allowing us access to information. I cannot dissagree that what you said took place, although it did not during my time or in the Home I was placed. Over the years there have been a mixture of responses when some of the boys traced their parents. Most were in care because of social pressures, unmarried mothers, mothers unable to cope, too large a family with the father out of work and as someone else mentioned several children who were considered as disabled or slow (I think the term was). Paul