Posts filed under ‘history’
The Promise of Home by Rose McCormick Brandon
I’ve been reading the blog, The Promise of Home, kept by fellow writer, Rose McCormich Brandon. I remembered a story about a fellow who worked on my grandparents’ farm when my mother was growing up. He too was a home child, and so I shared a story for her collection.
Now I have invited Rose to share her connection and interest in the British Home Children on my blog. Please welcome Rose.
From 1869 to 1930, approximately 100,000 children immigrated to Canada from the United Kingdom. It’s estimated that 11% of the Canadian population traces their roots to one of these British Home Children. As a group, and individually, these children made a huge contribution to our great nation, yet when I spoke to a group of twenty teens recently, not one had heard anything about this segment of our history.
I grew up knowing my grandmother was a home child, but I don’t recall reading about this decades-long movement in any school history books. In May 1912 my grandmother, Grace Griffin Galbraith, and her two siblings, Lillian and Edward, arrived in Canada. Their father died before Grace, the youngest, was born. After their mother Esther remarried, the Griffin children’s stepfather, William Kelly, placed them in one of Britain’s many homes for children. They stayed there until after their mother’s death, then the three were shipped to Canada with 150 other children.
Today, no one would consider sending an 8-year-old to a foreign country to work on a farm, especially one that hadn’t stepped foot in a barn. But this is what happened to my grandmother. The Child Immigration Movement was intended to provide abandoned and orphaned children with opportunities for a better future and a home. The children weren’t so much concerned about their futures as they were about belonging to a family. Some landed in good homes where they were treated like family members. Others, like my grandmother, suffered abuse. She was rescued by an alert minister and a kind neighbour and placed with a good family.
After writing several short stories, some fact, some fictionalized, I decided to write a novel based on the experiences of home children. This novel is in the editing process. While researching, I became fascinated and inspired by how these children coped with loss. Some, like my grandmother, created fanciful stories of a privileged childhood to comfort themselves. Others, like my Uncle Edward (Ted), stayed grounded. He was proud of his heritage and showed steely determination. In his twenties, he wrote, “I go where I jolly well please and I don’t take any dirt from anybody.” A sturdy boy with an aptitude for farming, he stayed with the same family from age 12 to 28. He searched for and found my grandmother Grace. The two then maintained a close relationship. Sadly, Lillian Griffin contracted tuberculosis and died in a sanatorium at age 22.
Grandma Galbraith
Uncle Ted
A large number purposely lost their accents and hid their pasts, even from spouses and children. Many of today’s ancestry buffs are finding out that brave stories told by grandparents and great-grandparents of hopping on ships and sailing to Canada alone aren’t true. They were abandoned, orphaned and destitute children, forced into immigration by a well-meaning system that promised a brighter future than their home countries could provide. Most home children became thankful for their Canadian citizenship, but the road to thankfulness, in most cases, was a rough one.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of my grandmother’s immigration to Canada. In her memory, and to honour the contributions of all home children to our great nation, I started a blog called The Promise of Home (http://littleimmigrants.wordpress.com) that features their stories. Telling their stories elevates their standing in our country’s history.
The stories are written by children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and in some cases by unrelated people who have been inspired by a home child. Some stories are heartbreaking and difficult to read. Still, they must be told because telling them brings a measure of purpose to their hardships. Others are heartwarming and tell of siblings reconnecting after years of separation. Next to the stories, the most important feature of the blog is the photos. Dr. Thomas Bernardo, the founder of the most well-known child immigration agency, took pictures of each child who entered one of his homes. Many stories feature photos taken by Bernardo Homes.
A reporter wrote an article for Ontario Farmer about my blog. Through that article, I’ve received several phone calls and an invitation to a church that is celebrating 100 years since its rural congregation of farmers welcomed a group of Bernardo boys. These boys were given an academic and a spiritual education and prospered. I’m always pleased to hear about others who treasure home child stories as I do.
I’m always pleased to receive stories. Email them to me at rosebrandon1@yahoo.ca
Rose Brandon– Little Immigrants
A fellow writer, Rose Brandon, has begun a blog with stories of Little Immigrants. These young immigrants were the Home Children from England, a story dear to her, since her grandmother was one of those children.
Rose asked of The Word Guild writers if anyone had a story to add to her site. My story about Little Joe is posted there. Go and read my story and others and contact Rose if you have a story to share.
Saturday Snapshot-Trunks, Boxes and Baskets
Waterloo Region Museum: Immigrants coming to Canada trunks used trunks, boxes, baskets to bring everything they’d need.
A friend told me once about when she was a child and her family was moving to England that she was allowed to take only one toy.
To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. At Home With Books.
Saturday Snapshot– Waterloo Region Museum
On the inside of the museum looking out through a floor-to-ceiling window. See how the track goes straight through? The museum is built right over the old rail line, but the steam engine doesn’t run anymore.
A wheel called Hazel, built in 1908 to provide steam power to local manufacturing.
An original Conestoga wagon
For more on the museum, check back in a few days.
To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. At Home With Books.
Celebrating Stories That Connect Us in Waterloo Region– Part I
Front entrance to Museum, off Homer Watson Boulevard
On November 12, and 13th, Waterloo Region celebrated the grand opening of the new Museum with an opening ceremony and Jazz concert on Saturday and open exhibits to the community on Sunday.
The Museum, new gateway to the Doon Heritage Village, has been long in the planning. Many historical artifacts, now on display for the public to see, have been stored away in a variety of places, waiting for such a building to house them. While the main lobby,, meeting rooms and theatre have been in use for more than a year, the exhibit area opened officially this weekend.
The coloured glass panels on the outside of the building represent the stitching on a quilt, assembling many pieces to make a whole quilt. The colours were selected from quilts to be shown in the museum and the pattern shown here by the front door spell out names of the municipalities of Waterloo Region. Planners put a great deal of thought into the design, but I’ll let you learn more about that on a tour of your own.
“The museum is located at the intersection of two transportation routes that crossed this property in the 19th and 20th centuries,” say the words in the program.
Indeed there is a railway track running straight through the lobby of the museum. In the photo above, you can see the steam engine in the village, and though it looks as though the train might go right on through the building, the engine sits there, quiet and still, and a pane of glass and some distance separates it from the interior.
The track inside is under clear flooring, the steel rails and the wooden ties. One can walk down this track without worry.
Floor-to-ceiling windows allow people in the lobby to see the historic village outside.
On this special opening weekend, a young harpist wows and relaxes us with her music.
Come back in a few days for Part II of my feature on the new Waterloo Region Museum. Until then, go here for more information.
Once Upon a Sandbox–My book is out
After months of writing and editing, submissions, waiting, and more editing, my book is out. Once Upon a Sandbox is a narrative in prose and poety about life on a family farm in the 50s and 60s.
If you’ve grown up in a rural area, you will identify with many of my family’s experiences. If you’ve grown up in a city or a small town, you’ll appreciate the need to work together to get essential chores done. You will laugh at the antics of children and pets, understand the ties of family, as well as learning about the challenges and rewards of living on the land. Come and join me on a voyage of memories.
I’ll post updates here as book signings and events are planned. For more information or to purchase a book, please contact me.
Cover art by Deborah Pryce
Family Cookbook– More, Please!
Our family cookbook, published by Gateway Publishing Co, Ltd.
Our cookbook came off the press and was shipped last October; we had it in time for our family Christmas dinner in late November. And though most of the books had already been distributed, a good deal of buzz travelled around the room that day as people turned pages in a copy for the first time, as they leaned in together to point out their recipes, some of which had been used for our Christmas potluck dinner that day.
Our cookbook is more than a cookbook; it’s a piece of history. In it are photos of family groups, their children and grandchildren, all descendants of the late William and Ardena Herlick, my maternal grandparents. The gathering of material, pictures, recipes and stories took a great deal of time and extra prodding, but those who contributed are pleased, as are those who now have a copy.
My cousins and I thought a cookbook would a good way to record our history. The project took longer, as many do, and became more detailed than even I could imagine. But eventually, this writer, editor, and project manager, along with my most helpful assistant, Peggy, got the project together and off to press.
William and Ardena on their wedding day
Even months after, I’m hearing, ” I like that recipe.” Then someone answering, “It’s in the cookbook.”
I’ve tried a few new recipes from the book too, some that have become new favourites. My mother, who has always enjoyed trying new recipes, is also delighted with the recipes and also for the history of her family that it represents, and that the project concluded in such a pleasing way.
My mother and her siblings grew up in the country on a farm in a time when money was often scarce, when their parents stretched every resource they had to feed and clothe their eight children, making the best use their large garden produce and the cattle, pigs and chicken they raised for food. The depression was a challenging time, but my mother said they were protected from many harsh realities of that period.
As a member of the next generation, I sought to frame much of what I had learned and that my cousins and I had experienced in our growing up years, values and learning that our parents passed on. As it relates to our gathering around the table for meals and times of celebration with one another:
“We recognized our blessings, one, that we have never gone hungry, but also that our family has been blessed with so many good cooks, men and women who know how to take good quality meat, fruit and vegetables and create a tasty meal, and a family who, when we gather as an extended family, fills the table with home-cooked goodness.” -from Introduction to More, Please!
The story is not over, of course; succeeding generations will write that part. Yet I hope, in time, they will take out their well-used copy of More, Please! and look at the pictures and stories once again, even if they choose to use only a few of the recipes within.
If you, the reader, should take on such a project, we wish you the best in your endeavour.
The King’s Speech– Go and see it
On New Years Day, my husband and I attended a showing of The King’s Speech, a movie produced by the British-based Weinstein Company. The film is based on the life of the Duke of York (Albert, known to his family as Bertie) who was crowned King George VI, and was father of Queen Elizabeth II.
A senior I spoke with while waiting in line said she’d seen the movie and knows the history since it played out in her lifetime. She appreciated the story and recommended the movie; she said we’d enjoy it.
As the story goes, when Albert’s brother David gave up his right to rule after his father (George V) died, the next in line to the throne was his younger brother Albert ( played by Colin Firth). Bertie’s reluctance to become king lay mainly in his difficulty with his speech. Bertie’s loving (Helena Bonham Carter) goes to great lengths to find someone who can help her husband with his speech and at last finds an Australian man, by the name of Lionel Logue [played by Geoffrey Rush].
What more challenge is there for a king than to speak to his people, and feeling unable to fulfill that role? I laughed, cried and sympathized with the king and his speech coach. This movie is funny in places, serious, and heart-wrenching at times.
The theatre was packed and the movie sold out, as it has been on several previous showings. I noted the faces of many people as we left that theatre, serious, solemn. All actors, I thought, played their part well, including the children of the Duke of York. The classical music played at various intervals fit well with the pomp around Albert’s new duties as king.
Carol Brooks, a Toastmaster from NewYork, said after seeing the movie, “May we also learn to value our coaches, mentors and loved-ones who share the journey and inspire our efforts. ” She thought people from all walks of life could take something away from this movie. I agree with her, for I found it fascinating.
For more information and trailers on the movie, go here. Far better though to go and see the movie for yourself and come to your own conclusions. For my part, it was well worth the price of the movie ticket and more. It’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
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