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Record #16232
Name :
: William James NICHOLSON (1878 - 1949)
  aka : Willie Nicholson


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 18 Mar 1878

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 22 Oct 1949   Notes : Heart Failure
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Lancashire, Manchester
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, Vancouver
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 21 May 1890
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Vancouver

Placement Family
: Goodchild
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
: Salford Workhouse

Agency
: Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes
NotesSpring 2012

To my three sisters,

William James Nicholson was a British Home Child.

I thought the sentence should 'stand alone' as I feel 99.9% confident in saying so having just received documents from England that confirm a number of similarities in characteristics we know about him. ?He was one of 120,000 children emigrated to Canada and Australia between 1872 and 1930 by several different Societies in Britain and Canada. ?

Some of what I am going to relate are repetitious to some but new to others. ?I have been searching, unsuccessfully for William's birth location and family in England for 35 years. ?It has been frustrating with the time spent, personal visits in England searching records, hiring professional genealogists, corresponding with Genealogical Societies in many parts of Great Britain only to hit the 'brick wall' of no records found.

I have five official documents about William that show five different locations of birth. ?Manchester, Jersey Islands, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight and Ontario! ?The only constant has been his birth date of 3 May 1881. ?But no record exists of a William Nicholson that matches. ?In addition to all this is the family lore. ?When William lived with our family on Albert Street in Vancouver, B.C., he told Mother that his mother and father had been killed in a train and buggy accident. ?His sister was sent to live with relatives and he was sent to an Uncle who had a large family of boys. ?He was the younger and was bullied. ?He did not like the life and ran away. ?He came to Canada as a 'stow away' on a Cattle Boat. ?

This winter (2011/12) I made it my goal to try another investigative approach to finding this elusive man. ?If he was living with an Uncle he should show up in the 1891 England Census as a 'Nephew' to the Head of Household, about age 10 if the birth date is true. ?The few names I found were not our William. ?

Because he indicated Ontario as a place of birth, I thought I would try the same approach in Canada. ?I found the following:


Name: William Nicholson Gender: Male Marital Status: Single Age: 11 Birth Year: abt 1880 Birthplace: England Relation to Head of House: Lodger Religion: c. c French Canadian: No Father's Birth Place: England Mother's Birth Place: England Province: Ontario District Number: 67 District: Grey East Subdistrict: Collingwood Neighbors: View others on page Household Members:

Name
Age
Joseph Goodchild
39
Jane Elizabeth Goodchild
50
John Goodchild
18
Andrew Goodchild
15
Annie Goodchild
1
William Nicholson
11

Note that he is recorded as a 'lodger' to the Head of Household. ?I then decided to search 10 years forward to 1901 and found:

Name: William Micholson Gender: Male Marital Status: Single Age: 21 Birth Day & Month: 3 May Birth Year: 1879 Birthplace: England Relation to Head of House: Domestic Immigration Year: 1890 Racial or Tribal Origin: English Nationality: Canadian Religion: Presbyterian Occupation: Servant Province: Ontario District: Grey (east/est) District Number: 64 Sub-District: Collingwood Sub-District Number: A-3 Neighbors: View others on page Household Members:

Name
Age
Joseph Goodchild
48
Jenaie Goodchild
61
William Micholson
21
Ada Gordon
19
John Goodchild
27
Andrew Goodchild
25
E Annie Goodchild
21

Note that he is recorded as a 'Domestic' this time. ?More importantly, the birth date shows up for the first time in the 1901 census forms and there was my 'bingo' moment. ?The birth year is close enough to make me think this is our William. ?Another key is the 1890 immigration year.

Accordingly, I searched the Library and Archives Canada web-pages.

William Nicholson, aged 10 arrived on the ship 'Vancouver' in 1890. ?Departure port was Liverpool, leaving there May 8 and arriving Quebec on the 21 May 1890. ? The Library and Archives Canada web-page says the Party was under the jurisdiction of Rev. Robert Wallace. ?Their destination was Belleville, Ontario. ?A Party of 26 from Manchester Refuge in charge of Mr. James Boyd, for Mr. Wallace, Belleville. ?All to Montreal in vessel. ?This is the same boy indentured out to Mr. Goodchild in Collingwood township, living at Concession 3, Lot 20.

Ten years ago I had a hunch that William may have been a British Home Child but had no way to prove it. ?He tended to keep to himself and harbour a select memory. ?It was the ?nature of his personality. ?I now know why. ?He may not have known where he was born!! ?Most children of tender years will probably remember their day and month of birth but sometimes get mixed up about the year. ?A place of birth is even less likely to be remembered. ?Also, children removed from their mother at very young ages tend to regress and have trouble in later life. ?William tended to be shy and quiet-spoken. ?Some British Home Children were ashamed of their background and hid it with bizarre stories (i.e. stowaway?). ?Some of these conclusions I read in a book Bob gave me for Christmas. ?

It was written by Perry Snow, B.A. (Hon), M.A. Clinical Psychologist titled 'Neither Waif Nor Stray: The Search for a stolen identity'. ?Perry lives and works in Calgary. ?His father was a home child and the book recounts his story. ?Perry brings in his professional knowledge into the book by ?looking at the psychological impacts on these children who lost their identity. ?He also spoke of the three million Canadians who are direct descendants of these children (us and our parents). We too have lost a part of who we are. ?

Anyhow, my next step was to search the internet for Home Children and I found Perry's web-page. ?He set me off in the right direction.

William arrived in Canada 21 or 22 May 1890. ?He and the 25 other children were lodged temporarily at Marchmont Home in Belleville, ON ?pending their distribution to the farmer's and households that had applied for child help. ?Marchmont Home closed in 1925 and all records were returned to England and placed in the custody of Barnardo's. ? Accordingly, I sent an application with the background data I had on William. ?There was a 'possible' on file and the case worker told me she has a very dark photo of a William Nicholson aged in his early 20's. ?She asked if I had a photo of that vintage for comparison purposes. ?I sent back the studio portrait I have hanging in my den. ?She responded with a 'very probable' based on eyebrows and mouth similarity. ?That was enough for me. ?I sent the 45 pounds sterling to have the file contents reviewed and sent to me. ?I had a 5-7 month wait but am now pleased to confirm the photo and file contents are about our Grandpa.

While waiting for this to come, I pursued a second source called 'Together Trust' in England. ?I found out that they have a William Nicholson on file. ?He came from the Salford Workhouse (Manchester) to the Salford Refugee Centre for Boys and Girls on 1 May 1890. ?He was only there until emigration on 7 May 1890. ?His admission form shows his birthday 3 May 1880, education to form III but is an orphan. ?Both unnamed parents are recorded as dead. ?This Admission document along with seven annual reports from various inspector's in Ontario were sent to me 4 February 2012. ?I am attaching them for your reading. ?Also, this case worker is going to search their archives for a group photo. ?Traditionally there was a group photo taken at the wharf just before emigration. William would have been 10 years old! ?Hope she finds one.


Three remarks stood out from the visitation reports that verified for me that this was our Grandpa. ?One, he was musical and received a coronet from Mr. Goodchild. ?Our grandfather owned and played seven different instruments in his lifetime; that talent was manifest in my Jeff who writes music, plays several instruments and has produced three CD's. ?Two, he joined the "Bretheren' at age 17 while attending a evangelical meeting at a nearby school. ?I know from family lore that William continued with that religious movement in Toronto in the early 1900's where he met my Grandmother, her sister and others ?(i.e. Fraser's) ?They, too, belonged to that group. ? Third, William expressed interest in the North-West. ?This would have been the three Western provinces of Canada, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta which were in the process of joining Confederation. ?As it turned out, William retained that ongoing interest as he applied for and received a 100 acre free grant of land in Saskatchewan in 1908 when the Government of Canada were seeking homesteaders to fill the empty spaces. ? 
ContributorsCreated : 2012-05-08 13:02:27 / From original database

Last Updated : 2013-08-29 07:04:48 /

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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  4 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
19009 BARNETT, Arthur1890ENG,     May 1906 : Tunisian CAN Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes  
20495 BECKETT, Mary1888ENG,     May 1890 : Vancouver CAN Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes  
16232 NICHOLSON, William James1878ENG, LAN, Manchester May 1890 : Vancouver CAN Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes  
15414 WEBSTER, Richard1875IND,    , Bombay Mar 1891 : Sarnia CAN Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes LindaWW