Now I have come to know the Harland family.*
They left south east London for a new life in Canada in 1912 and were one of that country’s success stories.
The early years were hard and they began life in Canada in a tent but with hard work and I guess a bit of luck they succeeded in carving out a decent life for themselves on a number of different farms across the country.
The story was written by Carol Spencer who is one of their descendants and will be featured on the blog through June and July.
Along with the story Carol supplied me with a series of photographs and it is one of these that has drawn me in and led me off on a trail of investigation.
At first glance there is nothing unusual about the image. Edwin and Maud are pictured with their two barefooted sons beside a log cabin sometime in 1913.
But it is the other two young people who interest me. They are unknown and of course might just be friends or the children of neighbours.
But they could also be British Home Children employed on the farm. Now I don’t usually do speculation but in this instance I am tempted to run with the idea.
The Harland farm near Frenchman Butte in northwest Saskatchewan was not a large one and “things remained difficult over the years and many jobs were taken on to supplement their income.
Edwin became a well-digger and dug many wells throughout the area.”**
Even so so I guess it is a possibility that they did from time to time take on labour and that the two staring out at us were also from Britain.
But I doubt we will ever know, my friend Jean has promised to ask Carol and it may just be that a document or letter referring to a British child might turn up.
And that of course raises an exciting avenue of research which might spin off into discovering who these two were or at least the names of children employed by the Harland’s.
That said I am at the limits of my knowledge and will have to explore the extent to which BHC were engaged in this part of Canada and who were the most likely charities to settle young people here in the first decade of the 20th century.
All of which may or may not help us with discovering the identities of the two young people, and with history being what it is it is just as likely that they were friends of the family in which case it has all been a bit of a wasted journey.
Well we shall see.
Pictures; courtesy of Carol Spencer
* The Harland Family, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Harland%20Family
**Carol Spencer, Edwin Norman Harland
The early years were hard and they began life in Canada in a tent but with hard work and I guess a bit of luck they succeeded in carving out a decent life for themselves on a number of different farms across the country.
The story was written by Carol Spencer who is one of their descendants and will be featured on the blog through June and July.
Along with the story Carol supplied me with a series of photographs and it is one of these that has drawn me in and led me off on a trail of investigation.
At first glance there is nothing unusual about the image. Edwin and Maud are pictured with their two barefooted sons beside a log cabin sometime in 1913.
But it is the other two young people who interest me. They are unknown and of course might just be friends or the children of neighbours.
The Harland farm near Frenchman Butte in northwest Saskatchewan was not a large one and “things remained difficult over the years and many jobs were taken on to supplement their income.
Edwin became a well-digger and dug many wells throughout the area.”**
Even so so I guess it is a possibility that they did from time to time take on labour and that the two staring out at us were also from Britain.
But I doubt we will ever know, my friend Jean has promised to ask Carol and it may just be that a document or letter referring to a British child might turn up.
And that of course raises an exciting avenue of research which might spin off into discovering who these two were or at least the names of children employed by the Harland’s.
All of which may or may not help us with discovering the identities of the two young people, and with history being what it is it is just as likely that they were friends of the family in which case it has all been a bit of a wasted journey.
Well we shall see.
Pictures; courtesy of Carol Spencer
* The Harland Family, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Harland%20Family
**Carol Spencer, Edwin Norman Harland
Glenn was here!!!
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