British Home Children: Sidney Imms PRODGERS England

Hi Julie. I'm on Facebook and belong to a page called "Families of British Home Children". I found this page after I found my information on my Grandpa on Ancesty.ca My dad had asked my sister and I to try and find information on his dad so we joined ancestry.ca The story of his life that was passed down to us was as follows....

He was left in front of a door of an orphanage in a basket as a baby with his name pinned to his clothes, he referred to himself as a foundling. A man paid for him to come from England on a ship to Canada at the age of 14. He stayed with People in Hillesden, Sk and then came to Alberta. Grandpa always used the name Sydney James PRODGERS and the birthdate of Sept 24, 1888. When he was 65 he had to get a birth certificate from England to prove his age for old age security. He had a very hard time getting that certificate, but when he did he found out his name was Sidney Imms PRODGERS and his birthdate was Sept 4, 1887. His mother was listed as Louisa Jane Mersey PRODGERS. He was born in Westminster, London England (Pimlico).

Grandpa as a 26 month old baby; Sydney James PRODGERS

Grandpa, Sydney James PRODGERS, as a 26 month old baby (November 1889)

My sister and I started our journey in February of 2010. The first thing we looked for was the census in England and in 1891 we found him in the census in the Babies Castle Home in England. At the age of 3. We found his war records and some passenger records traveling to and from England. We looked for his mother and could only find her in one census when she was a maid. About two weeks after we were on ancestry.ca while visiting my dad and brother in Red Deer a lady messaged us and said she thought she found a sister for Sidney. On the record the name was...Hollie Imms PRODGERS.

Well, you can imagine our excitement as we ran to show dad and my brother the message we got... They were very skeptic but I told them I was going to order the birth certificate and see if she had the same mother. My brother said.." Your nuts, what is the chances she is his sister" my reply was " with the name Hollie Imms PRODGERS , what is the chances she's not". I ordered the birth certificate and it was a very long 3 weeks I can tell you. When the envelope came in the mail I was so nervous to open it...

I was elated to find that the mother listed was the same as grandpas! They were born in the exact same place too. Then I was saddened to find, as grandpa's, no father listed. My dad and two aunts couldn't believe that they had an aunt, and grandpa had a sister that they never knew about. We continued our search for his mom. We stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning searching many nights. We found many Louisa PRODGER but never a PRODGERS, which my dad insisted on having the "s" on the end of the name.

One night we had been searching for hours and about 2 in the morning my sister decided we had been at it long enough so she went home. I stayed up and decided to check out member messages on the site. I came across a lady that was doing research on a tree for her twin niece and nephew, they were 9 years old. She was from New Brunswick. We were chatting and I was looking at her tree, she told me that the Twins' grandmother's grandmother had the maiden name "PRODGERS" , I had told her the hard time we were having locating our gr. Grandmother and her name was Louisa. The Louisa in her tree was listed as Louisa P. PRODGERS. I told her I was going to add her to my tree, as I had done with many before (only to delete them later as I ruled them out with documents of them marrying and having children) and try to research her. She was quite certain that her Louisa was not the Louisa I was looking for. As we chatted she told me some history of her Louisa. She said that her Louisa's mother's maiden name was PUSEY. After quite a while of talking we said good night and she told me good luck with my research.

I decided that I would try to find a birth certificate for this Louisa, after looking for a while without any luck I decided to look at her tree again. As I looked I remembered the P. In the middle of her Louisa's name, looking at her mother's maiden name, I had an idea so I went back to the search bar for birth certificates and I typed in Louisa PUSEY....

Low and behold a birth certificate for a Louisa Jane Mercy PUSEY popped up. I knew instantly that she was our Louisa Jane Mercy PRODGERS. I screamed so loud I woke up my husband...he came running and I told him I found Louisa. He was just as excited as I was. I was not going to bed now! I continued looking for information and found a marriage certificate for Jane PUSEY (Louisa's mom) to a Charles PRODGERS. They were married 3 months after Louisa was born. My sister couldn't believe what I had found after she left, I was sorry she wasn't there with me when I found her.

I contacted that same lady the next day and told her the news. She was so excited and she told me that the twins grandmother was alive (92 years old). Her grandma was a sister to dad's grandma (Louisa). She contacted Doris the next day to tell her. 2 months later we went to Ontario and met my dad's second cousin. As it turned out her son and his wife and the twins were there attending the christening of his first grandchild belonging to his daughter from his first marriage. We met the whole family. Doris, her sons : Wayne ( his wife Carrie & the twins ( Sam & Maria) and Paul and daughter: Jo and her husband (Bill Ireland).

It was as if we had known them all our lives! We have been back to visit since and plan to visit again for Doris' 100th birthday in 2018. Louisa's other sister also has a granddaughter alive and living in the same area were Louisa and her sisters all grew up.

Weeks later I was watching "Ancestors in the Attic", there was a man from Canada that was looking for his family. He Came to Canada as a young boy after being in the Babies Castle Home in Kent England. I recognized the orphanage name right away. As they told his story I heard the words "British Home Children" I had never heard the words before. At the end of the program they said that next of kin of the children that were placed in the orphanage could write the orphanage and request the records for their ancestors. I wrote it down and wrote them an email. They sent me forms for my dad to fill out and sign ( the closes next of kin had to apply for the records) I sent them in and got a email about 2 weeks later saying they had located his name and would begin their search for his records in their archives. I was told it could take up to 1 year to receive them. It was about 4 months and over $100.00 later that the record were finally delivered. What a package of treasures I received!

There was a letter to the sending home from grandpa asking about his friend (Ernest Bassingthwaite) grandpa was looking for his address, there was mention of Ernest requesting grandpa's address as well. I went back to the 1889 census and sure enough Ernest was in the orphanage with grandpa , they were both 3 years old. Ernest was in Saltcoats. I researched him as well and was saddened to learn he had died in an accident while digging a well in Yorkton in 1920. He had never married and had no children. It confirmed his sister, Hollie. It listed Louisa's sisters, confirming her. It had his father's name (William Edward IMMS) which we had guessed his last name would be, hence Hollie and Grandpa's middle names. It told the story of Louisa and William's 8 years together and how Louisa had found out he was a married man after living together for 2 years upon becoming pregnant with Hollie. 2 years later Sidney was born and a month before his 1st birthday William left Louisa for a younger woman. He was 15 years older than Louisa. Louisa looked after the children for 1 1/2 years and than took Sidney to the orphanage as she couldn't provide for both children. Sidney was 26 months old when he was placed in the orphanage. Hollie remained with her mom. Louisa may have gone back for Sidney when she married in 1901 but Sidney was placed in a foster home in early 1891 after the census were taken. He lived in the foster home for 7 years.

There is evidence that the Barnardos orphanage and other orphanages lied to many mothers that returned for their children telling then they had died or were adopted. Many of the children that came to Canada were "stolen" from their families. There is a movie on Netflix called Oranges and Sunshine. It is about the BHC that were sent to Australia. Excellent movie, very heartbreaking. There are also some good books.

I wanted to learn more about these British Home Children so I join a couple of sites on Facebook and researched them on the Internet. There were over 100,000 children sent to Canada to basically be slaves for farmers. They had to work on the farm they were placed at for 4 years. Grandpa stayed with the DASH family for 2 terms (8 years). From there he went to work for Albert GLYDON. He joined the army and came back from England in 1919. I also found that there was a boy named John C. A BARWELL that was a British Home Child that lived at the Dash's sons' home. He came 2 years after grandpa in 1901. In the travel records I found that grandpa and BARWELL traveled in Nov of 1910 to England, they returned the end of March 1911. I'm thinking they went in search of their families. I found a marriage record in England for BARWELL, his mother was a witness at his wedding so he found his mother. Grandpa never found his mother. In the 1891 census she was using the name IMMS and reported herself as a widow ( William died in 1911), In 1901 she had married and her last name became ROBINS. Grandpa would have been looking for a PRODGERS.

Sorry for the book....it's long but it's hard to tell grandpa's story the short version...❤? if you want to know anything else please feel free to write again. I will enclose a couple of pictures. The man with grandpa ( grandpa is the one in front, sitting) I believe is John BARWELL. I think it would have been taken in England when they were there in 1910-1911. Grandpa as a 26 month old baby...Baby & adult pictures of grandpa and Hollie & Grandpa and his children. He would have been 51 years old in the picture. It would have been taken in the summer of 1938 as Dad's little brother in the front (Stanley) died February 1st of 1939, he was only 4 & 1/2 years old when he died.

❤ ❤ ❤? Janet PRODGERS Fair

Addendum:You can find a lot of information on the British Home Children (BHC) if you type in British Home Children in Canada, such as

Lori Oschefski British Home Children in Canada

British Home Children in Canada (And newsletter)

British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association

British Home Children National Library and Archives

British Home Children. Parliament BHC Apology Petitions

Parliament BHC Apology Petitions

Julie: I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed grandpa's story, and I'm sure Lori's site will be very useful! I forgot to tell you...Lori has a petition on that site as well for people to sign for our government...she's asking for a BHC Day across Canada and an apology from the government for the treatment of of these children. Very few of these children were orphaned as was suppose to be the case, many were sent to Canada and other countries without their surviving parents knowledge. The Barnardos always mention in their reports a ( Canada Clause ) being signed to send these children to Canada yet not one person I know of on the site has ever received a copy of this signed document from any of the sending agencies. They can also register their BHC on the site. They are trying to find as many BHC as they can and their descendants. If you need anything else let me know. Thank you for all the information you gave me...I'm forever grateful!

Janet

Sidney Imms Prodgers lived in Hawkhurst, Kent, England in April 1891. living in orphanage (Babies Castle Homes for Destitute Children.)

The man with grandpa ( grandpa is the one in front, sitting) I believe is John BARWELL. I think it would have been taken in England when they were there in 1910-1911

Sydney James PRODGERS

Grandpa and his children. He would have been 51 years old in the picture. It would have been taken in the summer of 1938 as Dad's little brother in the front (Stanley) died February 1st of 1939, he was only 4 & 1/2 years old when he died.; Sydney James PRODGERS

Grandpa, Sydney James PRODGERS and his children. He would have been 51 years old in the picture. It would have been taken in the summer of 1938 as Dad's little brother in the front (Stanley) died February 1st of 1939, he was only 4 & 1/2 years old when he died.

Sidney Imms PRODGERS England | Page 2 Saskatchewan

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