Saturday 14th September at 2.30 pm
The Lyttelton Theatre at the Birmingham & Midland Institute
(Margaret Street B3 3BS, near to the Council House)
Free Admission! no pre-booking required
Approx 1 hour duration, includes a Q&A session.
A unique opportunity to hear from the leading expert on The Birmingham Children’s Emigration Homes – Dr. Patricia Roberts-Pichette Ph.D. who is flying in from Canada specifically for this event.
The talk will tell the history of The Homes, founded by Sir John Middlemore in 1872. Around 6,000 children were emigrated, mainly to Canada, in a bid to save them from their desperate home circumstances.
Patricia is a strong advocate of The Homes and will explain how they differed from other emigration agencies and how her research has led her to the conclusion that, for the majority of Middlemore children, emigration had a positive impact.
She will also steer us through the changing UK and Canadian politics that led to the end of Middlemore’s settlement policies and resulted in a very different emigration model from 1926 to the last of the Middlemore child emigrants in 1954.
Patricia was the driving force behind a project by volunteers of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, to meticulously catalogue the vast records held by Birmingham Library. As a result, in March 2019 the Society launched an invaluable, free online resource to anyone researching a Middlemore child. The index provides a comprehensive list of every document and archive reference available for each child.
“Great Canadian Expectations – The Middlemore Experience” , written by Patricia, is the result of 15 years research and the most comprehensive guide to The Homes available.
Visit http://globalgenealogy.com/ to download the book.
Don’t miss this special insight into a fascinating aspect of Birmingham’s history.
Note: this talk is being held as part of The Lost Children Exhibition at the BMI from 14th to 22nd September 10am to 4 pm