Your ancestor could be a Middlemore child and you might not know

Awful Kind is a new book by Sara Underwood that tells the story of the Middlemore Homes children of England who came to P.E.I. between 1893 and 1930. The book finally gives these children a voice.

Sara Underwood's new book gives voice to children who came from England to P.E.I. between 1893 and 1930

CBC News Posted: Oct 07, 2018 11:59 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 7, 2018

A group of girls prepares to leave England for Canada in 1906. (From the book Awful Kind. Image courtesy of British Home Child Group International)

They came from poor circumstances in industrial England and, from 1893 to 1930, they were sent to Canada with hopes for a better life.

For some MiddlemoreHomes children, it was a better life. They were placed with families who treated them well and made them part of the family.

But for others it was simply going from one bad situation to another.

In some cases the children were starved or beaten. Some lost contact with their families in England.

They were not brought over to be adopted into families, they were brought over to be domestic servants and farm labourers, says Sara Underwood, who gives some of these children and their stories a voice in her new book Awful Kind: the Story of the Middlemore Children of Prince Edward Island.

Sara Underwood's research took her to Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa where she came back with about 1,000 documents. (Angela Walker/CBC)

"So you've got little boys and little girls, seven years of age, and these expectations are placed upon them by the people who take them in," Underwood said on Mainstreet P.E.I.

Underwood and her husband went to Library and Archives Canada thinking they would find general administrative records for about 150 children who came to P.E.I. from MiddlemoreHomes. But what they found was much more actual reports on individual children from people who oversaw them.

"We really didn't have time to read anything, we just decided that anything made any reference to Prince Edward Island we would grab. We ended up with about 1,000 documents that way," she said.

I thought it was very important that we all understand that this actually happened. And it happened here. Sara Underwood

Records show many of the children, especially boys, ran away from homes where they were treated poorly.

"Sometimes they'd negotiate with another farmer and he'd take them on for wage because a lot of time the farmers who took them in were supposed to pay them wages and then didn't."

Underwood said she decided not to change the names and places of the people mentioned in the book in order to preserve the "reality" of the stories.

"I thought it was very important that we all understand that this actually happened. And it happened here."

From Awful Kind: the story of the Middlemore Children of Prince Edward Island.

In 1908, a woman named Ethel, who would have been about 20 at the time, writes the first in what would be a series of lettersfrom P.E.I. to the Middlemore Home in Birmingham.

"I now take pen in hand to write you these few lines, to let you know I am well and have a good home. I live on a farm four miles from town. I have a good time, especially in the summer out coiling hay and stacking grain. I don't go to school now. I have a very good education. I see my sister quite often, she lives quite handy. She has a good place and there is another little girl I see quite often. Her name is Jenny Pierce. I hear from a girl that came out with me. She lives in Saint John. Nellie Myles. She says she hears from her mother quite often. I've never heard from my mother since I left. I would like to hear from her. And I often wish to see her. But I suppose I never will in this world. I can never forget her. Well sir, I would kindly like you to send me my age and date of birth if you please, for it's pretty hard for a young girl in a strange country not to know her age and her birth. People often ask me how old I am and when my birthday is and I have no answer for them. So if you'd please let me know I would be very thankful. And please send Sarah's too. She doesn't know her age nor her birth. And please tell me what church I went to. I go to the St. Peter's Cathedral when I'm in town. I don't go to church in the country very often."

Underwood said there is speculation that up to 12 per cent of the Canadian population are descendants of home children from England. She said it has caused problems getting pensions for some because when they came to Canada, they didn't know their birth dates.

Underwood hopes the book might getpeople on P.E.I. thinking about their own descendents. Perhaps someone whose background is unknown could have been a "home child" from England, she said.

"There was such a stigma attached to it that many people would not admit that they were home children because they were made to feel ashamed of it."

The e-book can be purchased on Kindle, Kobo, and iBooks. Paperback copiesmay be purchased online.

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With files from Mainstreet P.E.I.

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