Posting Member: Jenn
Topic: British Home Children
Family Name Associations: Stone, Carr, Diceman, Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Tired 🙂
Music:
Just a few notes on research we’re doing on the British Home Children right now, in the midst of website madness. It’s all coming along well, the menus and SkeletonGen upgrades are proving the most difficult of it all. However, Mark’s been a real trooper and he’s stuck with our original design. It’s going to look awesome! The ‘front page’ of Snowstones is ready and just waiting to get the javascript sorted out. I doubt we’ll stick with the OpenCube design we were going to use – I hate popups! But I’ve yet to find anything else we can embed into the table so the spacing works out right. And this, this is why I don’t do any of this for a living. Webdesign for genealogy is more than enough joy.
Okay, so. From our understanding, Annie Stone Carr Diceman never had any siblings. However, given how little we actually know about her, her family and her life before she came to live with the Carrs, we’ve decided that investigating the other ‘Stone’ children involved in the program isn’t a bad idea. Who knows, maybe there will be a link. And anything is better than sitting around not knowing anything while our government sits on these files.
According to britishhomechildren.org there were 12 children by the surname of ‘Stone’ that came over between 1871 and 1911. Annie is the only ‘claimed’ Stone child, meaning that she’s the only one people have connected to family through genealogy and research, even if it’s only one way. Three of them in 1871 were probably siblings, having come over on the ship ‘Prussian’, and are too early in my mind to be connected to Annie. Although stranger things have happened, I need to narrow my parameters somehow. I can always try hunting for long shots if none of this pans out. Also one boy, William Stone, was from Ireland so I’m going to rule him out. That leaves me with 7 children.
1. Ethel Stone, Born in England 1900, sent to Canada by the Catholic Emigration Society, arrived 1911 on the ‘Victorian’.
2. George Stone, Born in Carshalton, Surrey, England in 1890, sent to Canada by Barnardos and arrived in 1907 on the ‘Virginian’.
3. Mabel Stone, Born in England in 1896, sent to Canada by Waifs and Strays (The same as Annie) and arrived in 1905 on the ‘Virginian’.
4. Elizabeth R. Stone, born in Haslemere, England in 1911, sent to Canada by Barnardos and arrived in 1924 on the ‘Minnedosa’.
5. James Stone, born in England in 1888, sent to Canada by Barnardos and arrived in 1899 on the ‘Arawa’.
6. John Stone, born in England in 1888, sent to Canada by Barnardos and arrived in 1899 on the ‘Arawa’.
7. Ebenezer Stone, born in Edmonton, Middlesex, England in 1881, sent to Canada by Marchmont Homes (Now Banardos) arrived in 1895 on the ‘Vancouver’.
Right off the bat, I got a hit on Ethel Stone from an Article in the Ottawa Citizen. Ethel Stone died at age 16, she’s buried at St. George’s Home for Children. I followed a few other links, and ended up with this one, which is an awesome website… Canadian British Home Children, and they had a link to this FAG memorial which states Ethel died of burns. No real leads as to who she was, or any connection to Annie, but… Its impossible not to become emotionally invested after reading about these children.
Find A Grave Memorial# 82293087
Also, while poking around the above website I couldn’t help but notice the petition that they’ve formed. I’ve now posted it to my facebook, and this blog, and I’m going to keep posting it anywhere I can think of. This is VERY important! So all you readers out there that are peeking shyly through, go sign it. And all you others who I know are reading this, you too. These files are the only way families are going to be able to find their missing children. Sign, sign, sign!
PLEASE SIGN: Petition to grant access to the files of the British Home Children
For future reference, the Waifs & Strays Society is now called:
The Childrens Society Services Ltd
91 Queens Road Peckham London
SE15 2EZ tel 020 7732 9089
At first I’d thought it was Barnardo’s program that had brought Annie over on the S.S. Tunisian, but it was Waifs & Strays according to the ship’s record we found. There were Barnardo kids on the same ship.
Nothing else has come up that I can make heads or tails out of. Stone, being the name that it is, is viciously difficult to search for. There will be more… I’ll post as I can 🙂
