British Home Children Descendants

This is a photo of children destined for indenture service in Canada, a country that would be foreign to them. They are part of Canada's history.
Deep in the heart of a museum collection. . . mystery, some confusion, and the history of a community is revealed in tidbits and intriguing details with the work of cataloging a museum collection. For the last eight weeks I've been converting paper records into digital records for Ailsa Craig & District Historical Society. Amidst the details of creating records I think of cross-referencing, exhibits, and metadata records according to the record at hand. Records that capture an earlier place and time are critical to understanding our history, especially when they can be connected to a large history. Museums are not immune to the changes of our society or the shifts in our culture. The ground work is in record keeping, and those records can protect and preserve an historical event such as the Home Children until there is sufficient interest to tell the story. What is to be found in archives and museums that tell that story? Their untold history will help the present generation grow in depth and feeling and understanding. The experiences of 100,000 children who were brought to Canada for an uncertain future between 1869 and the early 1930s has been ignored or hidden for most of their lives because of their circumstances. The combined stories of the home children are creating a movement, passionate people insisting on the recognition of their history. Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered an apology and by September Canada plans to commemorate Canadian Home Children. The Year of the Home Child, 2010. The British Home Child website is collecting personal accounts, published books, some are even creating a quilt to honour their memory. In London, Ontario, Lockwood Films produced a documentary using oral histories, personal accounts, and film footage. Nobody's Child: Canada's Home Children, was produced in 2005. The story of Canada's Home Children and the search by their descendants for roots. Fodder indeed for history preserving record keeping.