My great-grandfather Sidney was an undocumented immigrant. The tale of how he arrived in a small town in Michigan near the Canadian border only came to light when I was a teenager. There were some clues about where he was born, but it took a lot of digging to finally piece everything together. I first moved to the UK to learn more.
The ‘home children’
One of the first clues why came when my great-grandfather applied for citizenship in the 1940s. He stated that his father, Alfred, had arrived in the country years earlier as an iron worker. This was a lie. The claim was checked, and they found no such person existed. His application was denied.
The lie was purposeful. He feared if he were honest, he would be sent back. He was one of the home children. These were orphans or destitute children in England in the 1800s and 1900s who were sent to other countries in the Commonwealth for adoption. Siblings were purposely split up, and many found themselves used as free labour in their new homes, sometimes under harsh conditions.
The trauma of forced migration
After living for a time in an orphanage called “The Little Wanderers’ Home” in Greenwich, my great-grandfather was shipped out from Liverpool in 1892 when he was just seven years old. He had been adopted by a family who ran a farm just north of Toronto, and spent the next nine years being passed between various farms in the area as he wasn’t content with the arrangement.
His older brothers, William and Alfred, were sent to different parts of the country. Does one of them sound familiar? With this isolation from those he cared about, he felt betrayed and abandoned and wanted no part of the countries that had done this to him. He fled to the US by finding work on boats on the Great Lakes when he turned 17. He did whatever he could to stay: moving around constantly. He became very protective of the life he was able to build.
Making the move
His childhood trauma echoed throughout my family over generations in both predictable and unpredictable ways I won’t go into here. The point is that when his real story came to light, I decided to trace his journey back. When I graduated university with several degrees (one in Education), I found it relatively easy to make the jump. There was a shortage of teachers in the UK, and I was a maths teacher.
There were a fair number of challenges I didn’t expect. Getting a bank account was one challenge that left me only able to afford bread for several weeks. You can’t eat a paper payslip.
Overall the process was eye-opening. It was difficult, isolating and fraught with misunderstandings. This was a choice I had made, however, so I figured it out. I learned. It was easier for me with an education and a guaranteed job. To do this at age seven without a say in the matter is completely different. Each lesson he learned was tinged with a sense of loss, resentment and isolation. His records describe him being a hard worker, but as he reached his teenage years there were more than a few notes made about his temper.
He did eventually reconnect with his older brothers, but by then their relationship had become strained. I am lucky to have a photo of one of their reunions, and you can see their history etched upon their faces.
Improvements in modern foster care
It made me appreciate how traumatic such a journey could be. At least 100,000 to 150,000 children were forced to make similar journeys between 1860 and 1960. Many weren’t even orphans, but simply from poor families. Today it is estimated that one in ten Canadians are descended from a home child. My great-grandfather’s story is not unique.
Today there are over 80,000 children in the foster care system in England. As a software developer and data specialist, I’ve worked with social workers on many projects and have heard stories from those in the care system about how things could be improved. Our current system isn’t perfect, but it’s a far cry from what existed before. Every effort is made to keep siblings together: that family connection is seen as important to maintain. The child’s voice is also a key factor when deciding what happens to them. I can’t help but wonder how things would have been different for my great-grandfather if such considerations had been given to him.
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