Memorandum by the Ellen Foundation Inc.
WELFARE OF FORMER BRITISH CHILD MIGRANTS
(CM149 REVISED)
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
| The Ellen Foundation Inc
| 43 |
| Purpose | 43 |
| Methods | 44 |
| Structure | 44 |
| Strategy | 45 |
| Time frame | 45 |
| Conclusion | 45 |
THE ELLEN
FOUNDATION INC. The
Foundation was formed in 1990 and incorporated in 1991. It is
a non-profit organisation devoted to helping "Home Children"
and their descendants locate their roots and attempt to locate
living relatives in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia as well
as other countries.This is very difficult for descendants to accomplish.
With the children arriving as young as two years, they would not
know who their parents are let alone when and where they were
born. With only incomplete ships passengers lists available in
Canada it is next to impossible to locate any information here
in Canada. So unless they have the means to conduct exhaustive
research and travel to the UK they may never find out who their
loved ones are. It is for this reason that we plan to do this
on their behalf.To date we have been successful on our own in
locating records previously thought lost, obtain birth, marriage
and death certificates for the children and their descendants.
Along with this we have also located living relatives for numerous
families across the globe. It has been an enormous undertaking
and very time consuming to carry out searches without access to
records. However we have still managed through sheer determination
of the Foundation and our volunteers.The Foundation is the only
organisation in Canada who actively seeks information for the
children and their descendants. The Foundation does not charge
for its service to these people. Other organisations point people
in the various direction to conduct searches on their own, and
some even recommend that when requesting searches that a donation
of £50 or more be made to the very society that sent their
loved one to Canada in the first place, with no guarantee of receiving
any information in return. This is a horrible position to put
these people in and we feel we have a better way for all involved.To
date we have done so with funding from one source only, this is
a private citizen with a deep concern that the stories of Home
Children never be forgotten.The Foundation will do everything
possible not to let that happen. These children are a very important
part of Canadian and British heritage and with a joint effort
by the Canadian and British and other Governments co-ordinated
by the Foundation, this part of our heritage can be preserved
and made accessible to all interested parties.
PURPOSE The purpose of the Foundation
is to allow Home Children and their descendants an opportunity
to locate their roots, true identities and any living relatives
they may have. These are some of the first steps required to make
this happen.
(1) Access to records in the UK and Canada to compile a complete
list of all Home Children. Many of the Societies involved in the
Juvenile Farm Immigration Program are still active today. They
have a large number of these records. These records must be released
and the 125 year closure on them be removed. The only information
required will be the child's name, date of birth and parents name
and place of residence. Any comments made by the employees of
the societies or the government are of no interest to us and would
not be used in any way.
(2) Access to government archives to obtain additional information
on the Juvenile Farm Immigration Program, its participants, and
any references to the children.
(3) Access to any and all remaining records from all societies
that will help complete a complete list of Home Children.
(4) Full co-operation from all levels of Government in Canada
and the UK and other countries to help complete the lists and
to ensure the societies co-operate as well and to intercede if
any problems arise.
(5) (a) To provide assistance to the Foundation to help
complete these tasks on behalf of the 100,000 Canadian Home Children,
their 3,500,000 descendants in Canada and approximately 7- - 10,000,000
descendants in the UK.
(b) The assistance will be in various forms from the
actual retrieval of records, technical assistance if required,
diplomatic assistance with other countries, and financial assistance.
(6) Once the records are obtained by the Foundation our search
time will be reduced considerably. This will allow the Foundation
to be more effective in completing this task.
(7) After all records are processed and searches begin, the
Foundation will provide a year round home for the records in conjunction
with a National Memorial to all Home Children. This will provide
an additional sense of being to this long neglected group of citizen.
(8) The Foundation will continue to educate all of us about
this very special group of children, by speaking to the public,
academic institutions, historical societies and the like as most
have no idea exactly what a Home Child is.
(9) Continue to forge partnerships with educational institutions
and provide information to the same. We are currently working
with Dr Brian Taylor, a child life studies Professor at the University
of New Brunswick. He has been conducting research on his own for
quite some time on Home Children and it is a pleasure to be associated
with him. We are also currently working on some additional research
with Dr Taylor and the University.
(10) We will also be developing a history of Home Children
entered in to the curriculum of schools across Canada, and if
possible in the UK.
(11) All information will be documented and put on display
for all to learn and enjoy, this very important part of our heritage.
METHODS Once the information on
all the children is gathered, the data processing will begin.
The length of time to complete this will depend on how quickly
all records are made available and the exact methods of processing.
Once the names are processed the cross referencing can begin for
siblings, location, years and the like. Then as the searches begin
additional fields will be added to add relatives to complete the
list for the Canadian descendants, then the UK descendants will
be added when located if they so wish.Having a centralised databank
of all this information would prove an invaluable tool to Governments
and researchers if they wished to further study this unique group
of immigrants. As it stands now most records are not for viewing
and scattered about the UK, making it difficult to study.Searches
will be carried out by the Foundation, its employees and volunteers
and will require assistance from both the British and Canadian
Governments. All searches will be confidential. When searching
for living relatives initial contacts will be made by the Foundation
on the families behalf, and dealt with on a case by case basis
regarding sharing of information. To date all contacts have been
very excited to finally be in contact with their family in Canada.Once
all information is processed it will be housed electronically
in Prince Edward Island and hard copies will be preserved as well.
We hope that when we have the memorial established it will allow
descendants to come in and view the information themselves.Once
the database is established, descendants just have to call our
toll free number to locate their relatives and receive the most
basic but also the most important information to them such as
the Home Child's true identity, date of birth and who their parents
were. In time we also hope to provide date of immigration and
the ship travelled on and if the child had any siblings. On the
Foundations own initiatives we have transferred available ships
passengers lists from microfilm to audio tapes to speed up the
data-processing of the names.This will go a long way to correct
the situation and to allow the families access to information
that is rightfully theirs.
STRUCTURE The Ellen Foundation
is a non-profit organisation with a Board of Directors. The Board
will be responsible for the functioning of the Foundation and
policy making required for the programs and research. The day
to day operations will be handled by the Director of Information
Services.The Chairman of the Board will deal directly with Government
officials in the initial stages to implement a strategy for the
transfer of information. The Foundation recommends that all involved
parties designate a liaison to the Foundation until all information
has been made accessible. This will keep all involved advised
on the progress of the transfer of the information. This we feel
is the best way to approach this situation and will maintain a
continuity that will be required for a smooth transition.
STRATEGY Once the process of the
transfer of information begins the Foundation will proceed to
process the thousands of requests the Foundation has already received
for information and help.Then we would proceed with a campaign
to solicit contact from as many Home Children and their descendants
as possible through the television and print media.We are currently
working with our Government and a national news magazine television
programme for a full story on Home Children, the Foundation and
the work it carries out. This will provide exposure to the needs
of the children and their descendants.The initial media campaign
will bring in thousands of responses and we hope to be able to
provide assistance in a caring and expedited manner with your
assistance.As the requests come in they will be all entered into
the database and then cross referenced for any possible relations
that descendants may not be aware of. Then as the research proceeds
updates will be provided to the family on our progress.Some requests
will be answered quite readily, but some will take time depending
on the information provided by the family. So by keeping in contact
with the family throughout the search process, the family will
realise that after all these years someone does care about them
and their identities.There will be various steps to each case
depending on available information, but if the family has accurate
information and the Foundation is provided the information it
requires from the societies and governments, then an immediate
response is possible to basic information such as date of birth,
parents name, sending society etc. Although basic, this information
which everyone has a right to know has not been available to this
group of people.
TIME FRAME We
hope that by the year 2000 that we could officially unveil the
complete list of the participants in the Juvenile Farm Immigration
Programme. This would require all parties to co-operate fully
and the transfer be almost immediate so the processing can begin.
Our attention can be then directed to answering inquiries, educating
the public, and the location of living relatives.This is not an
unrealistic goal as the records are there and available, all it
takes is some concern and co-operation to realise that this migration
of children to Canada was a dramatic part of British and Canadian
history which must at all costs be preserved.An international
ceremony would be held on Prince Edward Island, with high ranking
officials of both the Canadian, British and other governments,
descendants and other dignitaries.
CONCLUSION It is time that the
children and their families find out their true identities which
have been lost at the hands of others.These children did not ask
to be sent to Canada to work on farms, they did not ask to be
taken from their families and homes, they did not ask for anything.
All they ask for now is the chance to know who they really are
and where they came from. Is it too much to ask that what is rightfully
theirs being returned after being taken from them : that is their
true identity.The Foundation respectfully requests the committee
seriously consider the requests of The Ellen Foundation on behalf
of all Canadian/British Home Children. We commend you for your
concern and consideration of this matter.If the committee requires
anything further please do not hesitate to contact us.
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