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Record #16086
Name :
: Grace Esther Emily GRIFFIN (1904 - 2003)
  aka : Grace Galbraith


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 27 Nov 1904

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 14 Feb 2003   Notes : Natural Causes
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, , London
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, Gore Bay
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 13 May 1912
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Corsican

Placement Family
: Cooper; Cox; McKnight; Gilpin
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: MacPherson Homes
NotesAs told by Rose McCormick Brandon at {website}littleimmigrants.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/grace-griffin-galbraith-by-rose-mccormick-brandon/

On May 14, 1912 Grace Griffin, age 8, boarded the SS Corsican in Liverpool. The ship brought her to Canada along with her 10 year-old sister Lillian. Their older brother, Edward, sailed on the same ship in August of the same year.

Grace is the youngest of 3 children born to Emily Elizabeth Rayner and Edward James Griffin. Her father died at age 28, a few months before Grace?s birth. Grace?s mother then married William Charles Kelly, a nieghbour widower 11 years older, a father of 3.

For many years our family believed that Grace and her siblings ended up at one of The MacPherson Homes when their mother died. That?s what they wanted people to believe. But information shows that they were placed in The Home around 1905 and their mother didn?t die until 1911. William Kelly put his 3 children and Emily?s 3 in the Home. They stayed there for several years. Kelly then took his children back home and left the Griffin children there. When the Kelly children got back home they discovered another child, Winnifred, had been born to Emily and William. Grace didn?t know about this child until Edith Kelly wrote to her in 1928.

Emily Elizabeth died in 1911 at age 33 of tuberculosis. A year after their mother?s death, the three Griffin children became part of the British Child Immigration movement.

Grace first went to a family in Thamesville, then to a home in Perivale, Manitoulin Island. A local minister, Rev. Munro, became aware that Grace was mistreated. He removed her from the Knight home and placed her with the George Gilpin family of Brittainville, also on Manitoulin Island. She stayed with this fine family until age 14 when the Gilpin?s daughter Mable married a William MacDonal. They took Grace to live with them on a farm in Providence Bay. Her association with the Gilpin/MacDonald family was a happy one. Many members of this family remained life-long friends to Grace and some still remain friends with Grace?s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Grace lived with the MacDonalds until she married James Galbraith at age 16 on February 28, 1920. The wedding took place at the United Church in Gore Bay, followed by a wedding supper at the MacDonald home. Attendants were Nelson Galbraith, brother of the groom, and Mae King, friend of Grace. Jim, 29, was a loving husband and good provider.

Jim and Grace Galbraith and their 3 oldest children: Evelyn, Lorma & Mildred (bab)

The two lived on a farm near Providence Bay until their retirement in 1952.They moved to Espanola, a paper town 70 miles from the island. They had five children: Evelyn Legge Pattison (Manitoulin Island), Lorma Middaugh (Evansville, Manitoulin Island ? now deceased), Mildred McCormick (Espanola), Leona Sloss (Espanola) and Ransford Galbraith (Mindemoya, Manitoulin Island).

About a year after Grace?s marriage, her sister Lillian died of TB. We know the two had contact by letter until Lillian?s death. In a 1928 letter to relatives back in England, Grace wrote: ?It was lonesome for me when Lily died. I missed her sisterly letters.?

Edward (Ted), searched for Grace and found her a few years after her marriage. A bachelor until his fifties, Ted moved near Grace and maintained a close ties with her. As one of Grace?s grandchildren, I remember many of his visits.

My mother, Mildred, is Grace and Jim?s middle child. When they retired from farming, my grandparents built a house two doors from ours. For most of my childhood, I saw my them every day. My grandmother, like many adult home children, didn?t talk about her childhood. If it had been left to her, none of us would know much about her past. But because the community of Providence Bay is small, everyone knew where she?d come from and some of the troubles she?d had. And Uncle Ted was more talkative and open about their English past.

In her widowed years, Grace told fanciful stories about belonging to an affluent family who traveled the world. We believe she concocted these fantasies as a child to offset her sufferings. In old age, she returned to the day-dreams for comfort.

A number of years ago, my uncle, Ransford Galbraith, was contacted by relatives of Grandma?s half-sister, Winnie, in England. Everyone was excited about this, everyone but Grandma. Our family felt sad that she couldn?t enjoy meeting these people when they came to Canada to visit. But, she was well into her eighties by then and had lived alone for a number of years. Ted passed away a few years earlier.

From the family in England, we discovered Grace had written letters to a step-sister, Edith Kelly, in England. She never mentioned this woman to her children. Now, every member of the family has copies of these letters written in Grandma?s own hand. In one of the letters, dated July 1928 she wrote, ?I can?t ever regret coming to Canada for I have always had a good time. I have had to work hard but I don?t mind that, for I love to work.? The ?good time? part wasn?t true of her childhood but her happy marriage and the births of her children caused her to forget some of her early hardships.

Grace?s letters were written by a young woman pleased with life. She mentions her children and husband with pride. And writes of farm life in words that show she feels blessed and successful. Perhaps the reason Grandma wasn?t excited about re-connecting with English relatives appears in one of her letters. She writes: ?I was young when I left there (England) and what little I know of things there I forgot about it . . . I can never recollect of ever seeing my mother and I have no picture of her.? In the same letter she expressed, ?a longing to see some of my own folks.?

Grace and brother Edward (Ted) in center (Jim to Grace?s left, her 5 children behind)

We received a photo of Grace?s mother (my great-grandmother), along with other documents, from our reconnected relatives in England. Grace Griffin Galbraith passed away at age 99. She spent the last years of her life at the nursing home in Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island. At her funeral, the minister (someone who had known her for decades) said that God often makes up for difficult childhood years by putting kind, gentle people into the person?s adult life. This was true for Grandma. Her husband and all five of her children and their 22 children loved and cherished her.

Grace was a loving grandmother, gentle and generous. After a childhood filled with loss ? her parents, sister, home, family connections, country ? Grace?s longings for family and home came to pass in Canada.

Her eldest daugher, Evelyn, writes: ?I feel sad for the unfortunate beginning my mother had but am most thankful for the better life she was offered in Canada.?

Grace died in February, 2003. She would?ve been 100 in November of that year. 
ContributorsCreated : 2012-03-06 13:31:48 / From original database

Last Updated : 2012-05-14 18:40:21 /

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23343 ALDRIDGE, Charles Henry1888ENG, LDN, London Jun 1901 : Parisian CAN Waifs & Strays lostgirl19  
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6594 ANDERSON, Leslie1913ENG, LDN, London Jul 1927 : Minnedosa CAN Barnardos  
10452 ANDERSON, William1906ENG, LDN, London Jul 1921 : Megantic CAN National Childrens Home  
8858 ANNESS, James Edward1901ENG, LDN, London Jul 1914 : Empress of Britain CAN Salvation Army  
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6585 AVES, Rose1912ENG, LDN, London Jul 1927 : Minnedosa CAN Barnardos  
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