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I have found records of the boys I am looking for , their passages to Canada were paid for by the Church Army, who were these people, would the boys have been in a home to be paid for by them, are they Home Children as its the year of the HomeChild . I know one of the boys manged to come back to the Uk after a couple of years,. They were sent to be farm labourers to a Mr Cole, does anyone have info on this for me if so I would be very gratefull. How can I find what happeend to the girl, I have seen records of the boys on board what looks like theSS Adriana but its difficult to make out. Iknow they were not Orphans they had a living father that had remarried a few years before they were sent to Canada, does that mean anyone could just send them off or would there have had to be a real reason to do it.?
Mandy

Suggest you Google Home Children to get the info - and yes, it does look as if it wasn't only orphans who were sent to Canada and Australia but lots of children who were in homes for other reasons.

There was a lot in the news earlier this year when Gordon Brown apologised in parliament to those who were sent to Australia.

There are several sites in Canada they may be able to help you find what happened to the girl.

Well my maternal grandfather was widowed in 1905 with 4 children. He put them in an East End of London Home run by the McPherson's. The eldest child a girl was sent to Canada as a home child in 1909 just 3 weeks before he married my nan, They did inform the home of their marriage and took the boys back but were too late to "save" the girl.
Like Barnardos when you signed them in you had to sign over your parental rights otherwise they wouldn't take them,So no many of the children weren't orphans they had a parent who was forced to put them in home cos they couldn't care for them at the time.

Hi Potty thanks, not having much luck as i don't even know if the girl was sent there.
Mandy

So they would have been signed over really to be workers or adopted, they did not go for work experience just for the sake of it, they were really nort expected to come back.
Mandy

If the parental rights had been given over to the Church army would that be where their birth certificate would have gone.?
And if so this could be why we can get no certificates from where they were born , India ,or here where they came back too. The Gro thought they would have copise as the children were clased as British but then could find no copies.

Some children from these *homes*were sent without a parent knowing or signed for them to go.

have a google there's masses of information about it.

Around what date were they sent there?

Can you give us their names and we will see what we can find?

Dea x

The boys were sent out August 1929 they arrived quebec aug 1929 they were to a reciever called Mr Cole a farm Idon't know if the girl was sent out as I have not a name for her except surname May
Mandy

The first thing to do Amanda would be to find out the girl's name.

If you can tell us the boys' details - names, years of birth etc., and any parents' details you might have, we should then be able to find her name.

Only then can we start looking.

Dea x

Hi thats the big problem, we only knew one childs name because his daughter knows it, she knew nothing about the other 2 children until we found a record where their father brought them back to England from India after their mother died. on the ships list they are a master May and Child May, can't rember but I think the eldest was named as George. We are pretty sure that Phil(definately) and george are sent to Canada by the Church army but as we don't know the third childs name we don't know if she went with them, there is a female on the ship about the right age but again no first name. We have tried to get birth certs but to no avail.

Father Herbert Edward May born 1879 worcester.
Mother Olive may Spilling birth 1883 place not known
George Edward May c1912 India
Phil May c1915 India
unknown c1914India
mother died 1919 in India
Father bought children back to England 1920
Father remarries 1921 Mary Davis
Children shipped out between 1927 and 1929 passage paid by Church Army don;t know about 3rd child

Amanda, you've already got a couple of previous threads and a month ago you'd already provided the children's names?

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1247072

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1243307

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1235970

It's much easier for the helpers on here if you add your requests to your existing thread, rather than start a new one (GR rules are one thread per family). That way, people aren't repeating searches that have already been done, and also have the previously found information to hand so they can use it for reference.

BUT if its to do with an earlier enquiry its best to add it to that thread otherwise info already found will be posted.
Personally when i do searches I will post info that comes up even if it doesnt equate to the specific enquiry as it helps to pad out the family info
You may know info but we dont know what you may already have.

If Amanda returns here.........

why not google the Church Army and ask about their records. I had a similar situation involving Barnados and they were brilliant - I received photocopies of all the correspondence between my family member and the Home. Mind you, it was over 100 years ago so I don't know if you will be as fortunate with 1929.

http://www.churcharmy.org.uk/pub/home.aspx

Thanks will do that Cynthia.
Mandy

You're welcome. Hope it has a happy ending. Cx

For all those that have helped in the search of the May Boys and the unkown girl, I would like to say thankyou for your help. I have now got the name of the unknown and its Edna Bangham May born 1913 in India, I t took a trip to the British Library by her surving niece to fine this info, unfortunatelly we don't know what happened to her as we can find no more records, we don't know if she was sent to Canada or somewhere else, if anyone can come up with anything it would be appreciated. Hope i haven't broken any more rules about posts.
Regards Mandy