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Record #15283
Name :
: Robert JOYCE (1909 - 2002)


Father
: Robert Barrington Joyce
Mother
: Helen Thomas
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 8 Sep 1909

Marriage (1)
: 20 May 1948   Spouse/Notes : Dorothy Catherine Avis Sadler
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 1 Apr 2002   Notes : Congestive Heart Failure
Abode (1) : Place of BirthScotland, Fife, Lochore

Kirkcaldy
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, Ontario, York, Toronto

97 Dagmar Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 4 Apr 1925 (unknown)
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Athenia

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
: The Orphan Homes of Scotland

Agency
: Quarriers
NotesIn 1925, Robert Joyce, 15 (along with brother Thomas Joyce, 12), arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in a group of Quarrier children. He declared that he was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland; that his intended occupation was to do farm work; that his destination was Ontario, Canada; and that his nearest relation was the Orphan Homes of Scotland.

Robert Joyce was born in a place called Lochore, a town centred around a coal mine (and a loch). After the outbreak of World War I and his father?s enlistment, his mother and her three children moved to Kirkcaldy, where they'd assumed they would be helped by family.

After the diagnosis of battle-induced shellshock, Robert's father was offered an apprenticeship as a tailor. But sometime between the move to Kirkcaldy and the return of his father, the marriage broke down and they were divorced. All three children were abandoned at the Kirkcaldy-Abbotshall Combination Poor House by their mother.

Their father picked the two boys up to take them to The Orphan Homes of Scotland where they lived along with fifteen hundred others. The OHS was almost self-sufficient, complete with a laundry, joinery, school where the children received a full Scottish education (up to age fourteen), hospital and magnificent church MountZion. Boys were segregated from girls. They lived at least 30 children to a cottage, along with a 'mother' and a 'father'. Much like in regular home life, the older children took care of the younger ones.

Although the children there didn't have the love of their own parents and there were few luxuries, they were nourished, educated and safe. They were supported through the hard work of the Quarrier family and generous donations from like-minded philanthropists, groups of school children and the general public, touched by the plight of the poor little orphans (seventy per cent of whom had one parent still alive).

The real lottery came after arriving in Canada. Sent to distribution houses across the country by fifty-five child-care organizations, it was the luck of the draw that placed them in good homes or bad. They were children taken from their homeland, shipped across the Atlantic to a large, empty country where they lived on isolated farms, indentured until they were eighteen.

Robert told his children bitterly about being separated from his brother and how he wasn't allowed to sit down with the family he was working for, not even to eat his dinner.

The abandonment, the loss of his family and the move to a country where he was made to feel he wasn't wanted, made Robert Joyce a solitary man. Yet, he tried as hard as he was able, to be a loving father and he was a proud Canadian. 
ContributorsCreated : 2011-10-27 04:40:10 / From original database

Additional Editors : Sandranne

Last Updated : 2015-05-25 03:09:11 / Sandranne

Family History ResearchersRootsChatters with family connections to Robert JOYCE:

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Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  30 Entries        
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 883 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
3042 ABBOTT, John1881SCT,     Sep 1886 : Carthaginian CAN Emma Stirling  
3075 ABERCROMBIE, Andrew1878SCT,     Mar 1891 : Hibernian CAN Quarriers  
3076 ABERCROMBIE, William1855SCT, LKS, Glasgow Aug 1872 : St. Andrew CAN Unknown  
3100 ABRAMS, Mary Ann1898SCT,    , Dumfries May 1913 : Victorian CAN Refuge Home, Cheetham Hill, Manchester  
22560 ACTON, Philip John1917SCT,     May 1931 : Athenia CAN Quarriers  
3159 ADAIR, Henry Bower1895SCT,    , Dumfries Apr 1906 : Sicilian CAN Quarriers  
3164 ADAM, Allan Devrix1885SCT,    , Govanhill, Glasgow Apr 1897 : Siberian CAN Quarriers  
3168 ADAM, Isabella1897SCT,     Jul 1910 : Southwark CAN Quarriers  
3171 ADAM, Maggie1887SCT,     Jun 1897 : Sarmatian CAN Quarriers  
3172 ADAM, Margaret1899SCT,     Jul 1910 : Southwark CAN Quarriers  
3175 ADAM, William Butter1884SCT,    , Govanhill, Glasgow Apr 1897 : Siberian CAN Quarriers  
25417 ADAMS, William1889SCT,     Jun 1897 : Sarmatian CAN Quarriers  
9871 ADAMSON, Charles Daniels1897SCT,    , Airdrie Apr 1909 : Hesperian CAN Quarriers  
6389 ADAMSON, Christina Alison1894SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1907 : Sicilian CAN Quarriers  
9872 ADAMSON, James Balfour1892SCT, LKS, Glasgow May 1905 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
7357 ADDISON, Hugh1876SCT,    , Jamestown Apr 1887 : Siberian CAN Quarriers  
10483 ADDISON, Thomas Snowden1905SCT,     Apr 1920 : Scandinavian CAN Quarriers  
3147 ADIE, Gregor McGregor1880SCT, LKS, Glasgow Apr 1894 : Buenos Ayrean CAN Quarriers  
5358 AITKEN, Lawrence Gray1909SCT, LKS, Glasgow Aug 1925 : Montnairn CAN National Childrens Home  
10484 AITKEN, Robert Plenderleith1904SCT,    , Limefield, Wiston & Roberton Apr 1920 : Scandinavian CAN Quarriers  
3156 AITON, William Lyle1888SCT, LKS, Glasgow Apr 1907 : Sicilian CAN Quarriers  
5679 ALCORN, Agnes Maxwell1894SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1913 : Grampian CAN Quarriers  
5680 ALCORN, Margaret-Ann Irwin1897SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jul 1910 : Southwark CAN Quarriers  
3916 ALEXANDER, Agnes Barbour1888SCT,    , Coatbridge Aug 1906 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
10339 ALEXANDER, Beatrice Carlisle1889SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1897 : Sarmatian CAN Quarriers  
6417 ALEXANDER, Charles1894SCT,     Oct 1910 : Cassandra CAN Unknown  
3917 ALEXANDER, Janet Murray1896SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1906 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
3915 ALEXANDER, Mary Eliza1897SCT,    , Coatbridge Jul 1905 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
3918 ALEXANDER, Sarah Stewart1890SCT,    , Coatbridge Jun 1906 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
6418 ALEXANDER, Thomas1893SCT,     Jun 1910 : Hesperian CAN Cossar (George Carter)  
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 883 Entries        
Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  30 Entries