British Home Children Cemetery Genealogy

Niagara Graves of British Home Children from Our Western Home

Posting Member:  Jenn
Topic: Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, BHC, British Home Children, Our Western Home
Location: From Niagara to Home
Mood: Productive.

We made a fun contact through our little jaunt out to Niagara last week – Bruce has a really insightful genealogy blog that you all can check out http://www.craigmyle.ca/
It’s so much fun to talk shop with someone with his kind of experience!

I’ve hinted this post was coming, so here it is!  We took a day.  It’s rare but we needed a break.  And although we ‘worked’ a little, we also had the amazing experience of the falls – Which I’ve seen before, but really, you could never get sick of this view!

We made our way out to Saint Mark’s Anglican Church for the very specific purpose of going to see the graves of the children who were involved in the British Home Child Project through Our Western Home, which is the same project our Annie came through in 1901 at the tender age of 8.  Although Annie was a survivor, it’s impossible not to realize that she could have been one of these children that didn’t make it.  We wanted to document the graves and then visit the park where the home had originally been.

Always – We credit Lori’s site for so much research and effort to preserve the legacy of the British Home Children, please see it for additional resources: http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/maria-rye-niagara-on-the-lake.html

  

 

It was a beautiful day at St. Mark’s.  Humid, but the fall colours and busy squirrels really added to the atmosphere of serenity.  The site we were looking for ended up being in the back of the Cemetery.  Through all of this experience, the one question I kept asking myself is, why isn’t there more information?  Where are the historical plaques?  Where are the memorials explaining what all of this was, how these children died and who they were???  The lack of detail is stunning.  I cannot believe this Country makes so much effort to celebrate who founded it, and what it is, and yet, these founding children rest in silence.  Their sisters bore a nation.

I’m posting links to the FindAGrave memorials.

Mary Davis.  Aged 16 years.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136755788

Ethel Carey.  Aged 11 years.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136755866

Ada Ferris.  15 Years of age.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136755990

Herbert Radley.  Two years of age.  Although Herbert hasn’t been researched like most of these girls, I believe he might have been the child of one of the girls who passes away at such a young age.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136756781

Elizabeth Schofield.  21 years of age.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136756866

Edith Hutchins.  17 years of age.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136756935

Elizabeth Lucas.  16 years of age.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136756971

Sarah Ward.  12 years of age.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=136757060

There was also a memorial created for Matron of the Home, Emily Bailey from the same memorial in that cemetery.

Our next stop was the park, which was a very emotional experience for me, personally.  Annie was there.  She spent time there as a child who had been told she was orphaned and alone, before joining the Carr and Ireland families.  One Willow tree in particular was well old enough to have been there when she’d been there, and the sadness I felt again, at a lack of memorial for what had happened on this ground was overwhelming.

  

It was a beautiful day…  It was a necessary trip for us, and one day we’ll take the kids and show them. Because the lack of plaques won’t stop the history from surviving.  If anything, it only makes us fight harder to make sure those children’s voices are never silenced again.

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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