Search Emigration Of Poor Law Children

You will find information including

• Name
• Year of birth
• Age
• Event date

Additional information can be found in the records including poor law union name and sending organisation.

About Home Children

“Home Children” is a term used to identify and designate the thousands of children sent to Commonwealth countries from the middle of the 1800s until after the Second World War. This same population is often referred to as “Britain’s Child Migrants,” as well. More than 130,000 children, ranging from the very young (two to three years old) to eighteen were sent as forced migrants. Only 12% of them were true orphans in modern terms and estimates indicate there are over 4 million descendants of these children around the world today.

Some were kindly adopted into families and lived out a happy childhood, but not all were that lucky. The reality for many was a life of hard labor and servitude at foster homes, many of whom moved often through remote farms and state-run facilities. Nearly always separated from siblings and potentially subject to abuse. Findmypast believes that every story matters, and so while these migration schemes are often sensitive areas of our shared history, their stories are important to tell.

Through the Victorian period and well after WWII, there were many children and families living in extreme poverty. Migration schemes, generally created by charity groups, were one of the answers to dealing with this population. Charities, and then Poor Law Unions, began to send children to Canada in the late 1860s. These schemes only grew through the period and by the turn of the century, a new reason had been created, one which was supported directly by the government: imperialism. “An imperial vision of Dominions prospering under young settlers of good British stock complemented the moral benefits of child migration.” (Kershaw, Roger and Sacks, Janet, New Lives for Old, The Story of Britain’s Child Migrants, p. 8, published by The National Archives.) After the Great War, the focus shifted from Canada to Australia. Attempts at government regulation and oversight did not really start until the 1920s. The practice of child migration can be seen in the Empire Settlement Acts of 1922, 1937, 1952 and 1957.

MH 57 - Local Government Board and Ministry of Health: Poor Law Department and successors: Public Assistance, Registered Files and Papers

These records are taken from the MH57 series at The National Archives. The Emigration of Poor Law Children policy (1919–1923) was a British government initiative that facilitated the migration of children from workhouses and Poor Law institutions to overseas territories, particularly Canada and Australia. This policy aimed to reduce the burden on British welfare systems while providing the children with opportunities for better lives abroad. These records are taken from lists of children featured in this series.