Home children and Board of guardians
How to search for and access records for Home children and Boards of guardians.
On this page
Before you start
Gather information such as:
- name(s)
- approximate year and place of birth
- approximate year of arrival
- place of residence in Canada
- religious dénomination
Search tips
- Start with a broad search, then narrow your results as you go.
- Try searching with just the last name. If there are too many results, add extra keywords, such as a destination or sending organization.
- Try variations of the given name, an initial, or use the *wildcard, Ex: Lizzie might be used instead of Elizabeth, or McDon* for McDonnell/Mcdonald
- When searching by name of ship, enter the name without initials, for example TUNISIAN, not S.S. TUNISIAN.
- A code was assigned to each group of children traveling together. If you know a code, you can search for it in the code field.
If you are having trouble with your search, you can always Ask us a genealogy question.
About the records
Between 1869 and the late 1930s, over 100,000 children were sent to Canada from the British Isles through assisted immigration. Most of these immigrants are called “Home Children” because they went from an emigration agency's home for children in Britain to its Canadian receiving home. The children were mainly placed with families in rural Canada.
Some Middlemore children were brought to a farm school in British Columbia between 1936 and 1948 by the Fairbridge Society.
The records include the names of Home Children, as well as other names such as:
- some unaccompanied juvenile migrants who were not Home children
- some older boys who were recruited for farm training schemes
- some older children and young adults who were recruited by immigration agents in the U.K. for farming and domestic work in Canada
- some Armenian orphans who arrived with Home Children groups
- some young adults who had been in care as children and travelled as chaperones for the organizations
When passenger lists were not available or partially illegible, other Canadian immigration records were consulted to identify children or help decipher the names such as:
- Department of Agriculture (RG17): Immigration Branch, Central Registry Files (RG76 B1a)
- Juvenile Inspection Reports
- Manifest indexes
Archival records
The records in this collection were gathered from multiple sources at LAC and other institutions. If you want to see specific records, take note of the title, reference, and context of the record, then use that information to find the records in their home institutions.
Government records
Many of the records come from the Canadian Immigration Branch, Central Registry Files (RG76) and its predecessor the Canadian Department of Agriculture (RG17).
Passenger lists, Canadian Immigration Branch, Central Registry files (RG76)
These lists constitute the official record of immigration to Canada between 1869 and the 1930s. They are arranged by date and port of arrival. For more on passenger lists, see Passenger lists 1865 to 1935 .
Board of guardians
Boards of Guardians carried-out poor relief for each Union in the United Kingdom. Unions were made up of parishes and built workhouses. The register includes about 10 000 names of workhouse children sent to Canada from the late 1880s to 1916.
British Children Emigrated to Canada By Authority of Boards of Guardians (RG76 C4a, microfilm T-537).
This register includes the names of approximately 10,000 children from orphanages who were sent to Canada between the late 1880s and 1916.
Private sources
Records at LAC
There are also records from specific fonds.
- Charlotte A. Alexander fonds
- Chorlton Union fonds
- Girls' Friendly Society fonds
- Leeds Board of Guardians fonds
-
Middlemore Children's Emigration Homes fonds
- Restrictions by the donor apply to the release of information from records less than 100 years old. Records over 100 years are now open; however, many of those records are found on the same microfilm reels as restricted records, which makes the entire reel restricted. For that reason, you must submit the Application for access form for any Middlemore records.
Records from other institutions
You will need to contact the Genealogy team to access these documents:
- Catholic Emigration Association, England
- Barnardo's Homes, England
- Father Berry's Home, England
- Father Hudson Society Archives, Coleshill, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Fegan Distributing Home, Toronto, Ontario
- Gibb Home, Sherbrooke, Quebec
- Isle of Man
- National Children's Home, Hamilton, Ontario
- Nugent Care and other Catholic Liverpool Agencies, England
- West Derby Union, children sent to Canada by Father Berry's Home, England
- Westminster Catholic Diocese, London, England
Publications
Names were also pulled from published material.
- Annual Sessional Papers for the Immigration Branch were sometimes used to help identify particular parties of children when the passenger lists did not provide precise details.
- Canadian extracts from the Guild messenger
by Dr Barnardo's Homes [1922-2010] - Records of the Fegan Distributing Home in Toronto, Ontario, 1885-1931, 1937-1939,
by Fegan Distributing Home (Toronto, Ont.), Douglas V Fry and J W C Feagan. (microfilm) - Soeurs de la Charité, Rimouski, Quebec
“Les orphelins d’Angleterre confiés aux Soeurs de la Charité à Rimouski” by Robert Claveau and Louiselle B.-Claveau. L’Estuaire Généalogique, volume 4 (1985), no. 14, pages 261-269. -
Ups and Downs Magazine (Dr Barnardo’s Homes), 1895-1949
Microfilm copy
Paper copy- If the record includes a microfilm reel number, it may be digitized online at The Dr. Barnardo Magazine Ups and Downs.
- Some issues from 1895 to 1903 are digitized on Canadiana. Enter Ups and Downs in the search box.
Uncatalogued manuscript publications
You will need to contact the Genealogy team to access these documents:
- A list of Home Children from Isle of Man whose records are at the Manx Museum, Isle of Man, United Kingdom.
- A list of Roman Catholic Home Children (Child Migrants) whose Records are at the Father Hudson Society Archives, Coleshill, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
- Alphabetical Lists of Boy Emigrants to Canada, 1886 to 1915 inclusive, Gibb Home, Sherbrooke, Quebec.
- Alphabetical Lists of Boy Emigrants to Canada, 1920 to 1935 inclusive, Gibb Home, Sherbrooke, Quebec.
- Children emigrated to Canada by Catholic Emigration Association whose details are recorded in various registers/books, Nugent Care Society.
- Emigration of poor Catholic children from the Westminster Diocese to Canada, 1874-1928.
- List of Children sent by Nugent Care and other Catholic Liverpool Agencies.
- List of Children Taken into care by the West Derby Union and sent to Canada by Father Berry's Home.
- List of children transcribed from ledgers at the National Children’s Home in Hamilton.
- List of Children under 18 years old on the Books of Father Berry's Home in Canada on the 31st December 1906.
- List of Children under 18 years old on the Books of Father Berry's Home in Canada, 1884-1916.
- Maria Rye Index
Access the records
The records in this collection are a mix of digitized images available directly in Collection Search, microfilmed images available on our partner site, Héritage, and records that have not been digitized.
We do not provide copies of records that are already digitized on our website or on our partner site Héritage.
Records that are not digitized
Entries with References from the Department of Agriculture (RG17), microfilm reels with “A” Prefixes and Published Material with CS88 Call Numbers are not digitized. You will need to see them in person.
If you cannot visit us in person, you may want to order copies or hire a researcher.
If you order a copy, be sure to include the child's name and the complete reference as it appears in the database.