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Record #3922

Name :: : Hilda Winifred WILLIAMS (1898 - 1974)
aka : Winifred H. Williams
Father: :
Mother: :

BMD and other details

Date of Birth: : 5 May 1898
Marriage (1): :
Marriage (2): :
Date of Death: : 17 Mar 1974 Notes : Stroke

Abode (1) : Place of BirthWales, Monmouthshire, Newport

Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada

Sailing Information

Date of Arrival: : 11 Jul 1911
Country: : Canada
Ship: : Sicilian
Placement Family: :

Homes / Agencys

Institution (GB): :
Agency: : Barnardos

NotesA birth registration was found for Winifred Hilda Williams: Year of Registration: 1898; Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun; District: Cardiff (1837-1974); County: Glamorgan, Monmouthshire; Volume: 11a; Page: 327.

Her granddaughter, Barb Perkins, relates:

Hilda Williams was born in 1898, a middle child among the nine children of Robert and Lewsia Williams. Robert was a dockworker, not a wealthy man, but from photos it is apparent the family was clean, well fed and well housed. They lived in one of the many stone row houses that still line the streets of Newport, near Cardiff, Wales. They were Church of England. The children attended school.

On the second of March, 1906, Hilda's father was struck by a piece of timber at the docks and killed. Hilda's mother was 31 at the time and pregnant with her ninth child. The eldest girls were 11 and 12. There was a year-old baby girl and a little boy of maybe three. Hilda would have been eight. There were two brothers just below her in age and one sister just above ? the middle children.

In the official report, the Barnardo `relieving officer' spoke of Lewsia Williams as "a striving, respectable woman who elicited much sympathy." The ten shillings a week in relief she got from the parish was paid away in rent. Her attempt at setting up a business with one of her brothers trading in fruits and vegetables failed. Still, she managed to keep the family together for a whole year. It was somebody from the parish who said, `I'm going to see if I can get help for you.' That's when Lewsia was approached by the orphanage.

The lady from Barnardo's must have been as convincing as Barb's great-grandmother was desperate. Lewsia had no intention of giving up her four middle children permanently; the arrangement was to last only until she could get back on her feet. The two older girls would look after the younger three while she worked.

The family would never be whole again. Someone somewhere in the Barnardo organization made the decision that the four Williams children, ages six to ten, should be included with a group of orphans scheduled to emigrate to Canada.

In 1911, Hilda Williams, 13 (along with sister, Lavina Williams, 14), arrived at Quebec, Canada, with a group of 176 children en route to Peterborough and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

In 1990, when Barb went to Wales to do more research, people who knew the family described the way it had been ripped apart. They said Barb's great-grandmother never got over it. Even in her old age, after she had remarried and had a tenth child, she still wept for her four lost children.

In Canada the children were separated. One boy was shot (but survived) trying to run away. One sister seemed to have fared fairly well. The other did not. Barb learned that her grandmother was treated roughly, passing through four different homes.

Hilda did eventually find her Canadian siblings and for a time they all lived together as young adults. Relatives in Wales remember receiving packages from them. Barb also knows that, as a young woman, Hilda went back to Wales to visit her mother. Relatives remembered how smartly she was dressed. No matter how modest her means, Barb says, my grandmother was always stylishly turned out.

On December 15, 1917, at the Church of England in Hespeler, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, a marriage was registered between Hilda Winnifred Williams, 19, chocolate dipper, born in Cardiff, Wales to Robert John Williams and Louisa [sic] Evans; and Arnott Louis Hanenburg, 19, munition worker, born in Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, to Louis Albert Hanenberg and Mary Welheiser.

Arnott became an architect, and the couple had two children, Vivian and Arnie Junior. Then, on March 31, 1943, Arnie Hanenberg died. He was only 45.

Hilda Winnifred Williams Hanenberg died March 17, 1974.

ContributorsCreated : 2008-07-24 17:59:16 / From original database

Last Updated : 2009-02-20 09:22:34 /

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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 24 Entries

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
3062	ABEL, Abraham	1892	WAL, , Newport	Apr 1908 : Kensington	CAN	Unknown
6256	ADDIS, Herbert	1897	WAL, MON, Newport	Jul 1909 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
13440	BRIDGES, James	1873	WAL, MON, Newport	Apr 1886 : Dominion	CAN	Board of Guardians (Various)
10312	BRITTON, Lily May	1898	ENG, , Newport	Mar 1909 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
9138	BROWN, Herbert James	1892	WAL, , Newport	Aug 1905 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
16584	BUTCHER, Gladys Ruby	1894	WAL, MON, Newport	Aug 1906 : Tunisian	CAN	MacPherson Homes
16583	BUTCHER, Milicent Florence	1901	WAL, MON, Newport	Jun 1912 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
4128	CLUTTON, Charles H. J.	1914	WAL, MON, Newport	Apr 1928 : Andania	CAN	Waifs & Strays	eclutton
3444	DOVER, Beatrice May	1895	WAL, , Newport	Oct 1905 : Canada	CAN	Barnardos
5374	FORRESTER, William	1910	ENG, , Newport	Aug 1925 : Montnairn	CAN	National Childrens Home
12834	GATEHOUSE, Henrietta Maud	1888	WAL, MON, Newport	Jul 1900 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
16623	GATEHOUSE, Mary Louisa Edith	1890	WAL, MON, Newport	Jul 1900 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
7913	GOULD, Joseph A	1912	ENG, , Newport	Mar 1930 : Baltic	CAN	Canadian Government Scheme
21805	MAYO, Gertrude Blodwin	1896	WAL, MON, Newport	Jul 1911 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
6744	PLIMMER, Jack	1912	ENG, , Newport	Mar 1927 : Montrose	CAN	National Childrens Home
6353	RADMORE, Colin	1891	ENG, , Newport	Jul 1903 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
4887	SELF, Elsie Maud	1913	WAL, , Newport	Apr 1925 : Montclare	CAN	Barnardos
23312	SUTTON, George	1890	WAL, MON, Newport	Apr 1902 : Dominion	USA	Barnardos
9560	WALKLEY, Edmond	1906	WAL, , Newport	May 1922 : Melita	CAN	Barnardos
10176	WILKINS, Aloyisius	1890	ENG, HAM, Newport	Sep 1901 : Parisian	CAN	Canadian Catholic Emigration Committee
4727	WILLIAMS, Gilbert Charles John	1900	WAL, MON, Newport	Sep 1907 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
3922	WILLIAMS, Hilda Winifred	1898	WAL, MON, Newport	Jul 1911 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
3923	WILLIAMS, Lavinia Ellen	1896	WAL, MON, Newport	Jul 1911 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
4728	WILLIAMS, Robert John	1901	ENG, , Newport	Sep 1907 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos

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