British Home Children Cemetery Genealogy

More hours in a day…

Posting Member: Jenn
Topic: British Home Children, School, Find A Grave
Family Name Associations: –
Location: Home
Mood: Sleepy still, I need a cuppa
Music:  Such a pretty song 🙂 We’re Dancing with the Stars fans and Kellie fans around here ♥

Crazy, crazy busy.  This time of year is usually busy for different reasons, but there’s lots going on behind the scenes this year on every front.

So, Jacobba was supposed to write and he didn’t!  No cookies for him.
First order of business is a mention for Ms. Joan’s after school program in Science and Social Studies from Vermont for their awesome suggestions for our Links page.  Thanks so much for writing!  Wishing you all high grades and years of success!

Second note of business…  We’re going to be spending some time doing some work with the British Home Children Advocacy group – Main website: http://britishhomechildrenadvocacy.weebly.com
This is an amazing group of people geared towards getting the recognition that these children deserve.  If you’re interested in lending your support, there is an online petition to be signed.  Please consider putting your name down:

British Home Child Petition

And I want to make a statement here about WHY getting a formal apology from the Government of Canada is so important. The Government is a reflection of the people and their needs in a county.  Our Government needs to stand up and be accountable for the involvement in accepting the various programs for British Home Children in which thousands upon thousands of lives were affected by the circumstances and the impact that these immigrations made on our society.
What would begin with an apology could quickly progress into education.  I believe that every Canadian child should know who and what ‘Home Children’ are by grade 8 in their historical studies.  I believe the information surrounding these children should be available to their families.  I believe that there should be support, recognition and hopefully, eventually healing…  Because the goal is, to my mind, ultimately to do what Canadians have always done:  Take from the experiences of the past, from the Cultures we have come from, and grow into a diverse, enlightened, empowered individuals that stand for Canada.

And the next thing on my list is Find A Grave, and the fact that we didn’t make any sort of public statement over the last week, but we’re about to…  So, here it is:
We are aware that FindAGrave.com has recently been bought up by Ancestry.com and we will not be ending our support of FindAGrave or it’s efforts.  We respect the rights of those that have made the decision to stop contributing to FindAGrave, but we are choosing to continue with our contrabutions and with taking on user requests.  The simple and complex reason:

We believe in FindAGrave as a free resource for any individual to access the information and photographs of their loved ones memorials.
That has not changed.

I personally have read all 96 pages of Forum conversation on this topic, and despite having my eyes glaze over a few times, I can honestly say, and speak for us as a group, that I believe Jim Tipton had the best interests at heart for a project that’s grown well beyond what he could personally handle.  When you look to someone to carry on your dreams, you look for the strongest – Which Ancestry is.  You look for the one who can stick to your vision – Which Ancestry says it will.  And you hope that you’re doing the right thing for everyone involved, yourself included.  I think Jim did what he thought was best – And he has himself and his family to worry about on top of it all.  We wish him all the best and hope to see more of him as a functioning member of FindAGrave in the future.

Ancestry has a few issues with image lately, and in part I think it’s only got itself to blame.  But it’s breaking out in a field that no one ever has before, and let’s face it…  Accuracy was sacrificed when the option for ‘non professionals’ was opened up to the general public.  What was gained as open public knowledge of family that is absolutely frigging irreplaceable.
It might take 5, even 10 years to sort out some of the errors that have been made on certain lines of certain trees.  I’m sure my kids will be looking at some of the crap we’ve recorded and saying, Geez Mum, really?!
But the information is SURVIVING.  It’s getting passed out, around, down…  It’s being recognized in ways it hasn’t since the events actually happened.  And honestly folks, nothing is absolute.  Nothing.  Not Tanguay, not even the real records…  Everyone makes mistakes.  We’re all human…  To me, the inspiration, the hope, the excitement of people who’ve realized they can know where they come from is worth it.  It’s worth the rude people, it’s worth the crazy people.  It’s worth the inaccuracies that will give me something to correct well into my old age.  Because the other option is that it sits in a box in some attic, library or worse, dump… And it rots until it ceases to exist.

We’ll continue to support FindAGrave as long as it’s free, and pray that remains the amazing resource that it is.

Jenn
Always one for making things pretty, Jenn is our resident artist. Métis, British Home Child Descendant, family historian and genealogist, she is always looking into some new branch of research and encourages historical preservation and education.

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