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Record #24713
Name :
: Grace Ruth SILLETT (1892 - 1976)


Father
: Harry Charlish Sillett
Mother
: Margaret Ann Mallett
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 19 Jun 1892   Notes : Barnardo's incorrectly records birthdate as June 17th.

Marriage (1)
: 21 Apr 1914   Spouse/Notes : William Angus Hillman
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 25 Jan 1976   Notes : Buried in Lundy's Lane Cemetery, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Suffolk, District of Wangford, Bungay, Holy Trinity Parish

Census of 1891 is 103 South End Road. Census of 1901 is Webster's Lane. It is not known when the move to Webster's Lane took place. Barnardo's placed
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, Ontario, Niagara Falls, Ontario

Grace and her husband, William, who was a Civil Engineer, moved around Canada for over 40 years, depending on where the company, for whom William worked, had building contracts (dams and bridges). Grace recorded 56 places where she and "Will" lived inside a book and on a map.
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 6 Oct 1902   Notes : Arrived in Portland Maine with a group of Barnardo children whose destination was listed as Canada.
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Colonian

Placement Family
: Grace had 4 family placements.
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Dr. Barnardo
NotesA similar excerpt of a Master of Arts thesis, written by Grace's granddaughter, Susan Elizabeth (Hillman) Brazeau (me), is located on Grace's page on ancestry.ca. Both accounts provide some of the initial information provided by the Barnardo's Organization about the situation that led to the breakup of this family and the resulting move of Grace to Canada. It also highlights Grace's adult life as remembered by her son, her granddaughter, her nephew and notes that Grace, herself kept until shortly before her death in 1976. The entire research paper, "They Were But Children: The Immigration of British Children to Canada", is published by the Journal of Integrated Studies, Athabasca University and is also located in the Digital Thesis Reading Room of that same university.

THE STORY OF GRACE

Meet Grace, my grandmother. The following is an excerpt from her record at the Barnardo Girl’s Home in Barkingside, London, England (Barnardo Documents, 1902)

· Admitted: 7th May, 1900, Age 7 years, 10 months. Reason for admission, death of father at an early age. Mother left financially destitute and pregnant with 7 children all under the age of 10

· Date and Place of Birth: 19th June, 1892, at Bungay [Suffolk, England]

· Religious Denomination of Parents: Church of England

· Full Agreement, with Canada Clauses, signed by mother

Grace was 3 feet, 5 inches tall with brown hair, brown eyes a dark complexion and 44 pounds. She was shy, quiet and polite. Within a few months, she was sent to the small village of Thorndon, Suffolk, to live with a family consisting of an elderly couple with whom she lived for two years. Grace had a small prayer book given to her by this family that she kept all her life. It was one of only four items that she kept from her childhood (Family Record, 2012). She did not remain there permanently, because Grace’s mother had signed the Canada Clause that gave Barnardo’s the right to send her daughter to Canada and place her according to where there was need (Personal Correspondence, 1992).

Grace was sent to Canada in 1902 and lived in 4 different homes. She was fortunate as these people oversaw her education, while at the same time, trained Grace as a domestic servant. When one family was unable to continue with Grace, (one due to moving and another to permit her an opportunity to go to high school), Barnardo records indicate that ladies in the community followed her progress, conversed with each other and made sure Grace went to good and caring homes.


PLACEMENTS

1) October 8, 1902 - November 20, 1902: The Reverend and Mrs. Catchpole, Brighton, Ontario. The Catchpoles moved to the United States and had asked to adopt Grace; however, Grace's mother refused.
2) November 20, 1902 -October 6, 1905: Mr. and Mrs. John Card, Brighton, Ontario.
3) October 6, 1905 - August 31, 1908: Mrs. T.E. Pelky (widow), Brighton, Ontario
4) August 31, 1908 - September 1911: Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Ross, Brighton, Ontario


Except for one brief period, the reports for Grace were excellent and visits by Barnardo’s staff occurred at least once a year. The Barnardo Document (p. 3, 1916) states, “good health, very pretty girl, black eyes and hair and good figure. Nice girl, well spoken of in this village –keeping company with a respectable young man-a clerk in a hardware store. Has decided to go to the Telephone office after the New Year”. The final comment on Grace’s record is from Mrs. Ross. Grace... “is a splendid girl and a credit to the Home” (Barnardo, p. 3, 1916).

Grace began boarding with the Ross's after her indenture was completed, and began working as a telephone operator in Brighton, Ontario. She maintained contact with members of this family throughout her life.

UNLIKE THE STORIES of many other Home children Grace’s story was a positive one. Yet, when she spoke of her childhood experiences to her nephew nearly fifty years later, there was a lifetime of doubt. “When Aunt Grace told me she was a Barnardo’s girl, she cried. She said she was so ashamed that she could never tell her own children. All of her life, she thought she wasn’t as good as other people” (Personal Correspondence, 1992).

Grace had no contact with any of her family, until, at the age of 14, she asked if she had any family in England. Barnardo’s then assisted Grace to make contact with her mother (Barnardo Document, p. 2, 1916). She subsequently made and kept written contact with some of her siblings who had remained with their mother in 1900. According to a diary kept by Grace, after 63 years of separation and seven years of planning, she fulfilled a lifelong dream and traveled to England in 1965 where she was finally reunited with six of her seven siblings, and two step-siblings (Grace, Travel Diary, June 1965).

WHAT HER CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN KNEW

“Showing courage commitment, and a capacity for hard work, most Home Children went on to lead successful lives as productive citizens in all professions, making a significant contribution in every part of Canada” (Young, 2012, p. 9). My grandmother, or Granny, as she was called, appears to have been one of the children of whom Young speaks. At the age of 22, in 1914, my grandmother, married William, a civil engineer, whose work took him across Canada and into the untamed, undeveloped and unpopulated areas of this country.

Grace went with him, every step of the way, in their 48years of marriage. In the earliest years, it was traveling by canoe, living in canvas tents in all seasons, carrying a rifle over her left shoulder and wearing a knee length Hudson’s Bay coat, matching gloves and a muskrat hat on her head. On her feet were the mukluks and snowshoes made by the Ojibway of northern Manitoba. Before the river froze one early winter, she traveled for days in a canoe to reach Winnipeg to give birth to her first son, my father, only to return upriver in the spring thaw, her infant son strapped to her back, so she could be back home, with her husband.

Over the next 40 years, this child immigrant from Britain, my grandmother, was at the very sites as her husband helped plan and build some of the largest dams and bridges from Alberta to New Brunswick. With each place, with each experience, she brought something forward to her future grandchildren many years later: her stories, her photos, her diaries, her address books, and a map. During the depression years, the roof of the family house in Ontario had been marked with a big yellow X by the hobos riding the rails – my grandmother’s home was a place where anyone could stop, take a rest and be well fed. Baked macaroni and cheese was her specialty. During the Second World War, she regularly shipped food and clothing to her English siblings, with whom she had made contact. She saw her three children survive that same war, return to Canada and become successful in their own lives.

As she became older and she and my grandfather moved around less often, Granny was able to live a life of some comfort. Occasionally, she had tea with the wives of diplomats and business moguls; she enjoyed Ladies Luncheons and dinner parties; and she played an excellent hand of whist and duplicate bridge. Grace was a person of strong Christian faith and became a member of her local church and several benevolent groups no matter where she resided. Her love of music led her to sing in church choirs and attend operas and musicals in New York or Toronto or Montreal, and even London, England. When William retired and the two of them settled in their final home together, Grace fulfilled a lifelong dream by purchasing a small organ for herself; and, she was finally able to play from all of the sheet music she had been collecting since the early 1920’s.

Following my grandfather’s death in 1962, my grandmother sold her home at half the price to what she referred to as a nice young couple starting out in life. She never turned an adult or child away from her door whether they were selling papers, cookies, or pretend chocolate pies made out of mud; and, she made it possible for me to go to Europe with my school group because, she said, every person should have the opportunity to see the world.

Grace was a woman who lived in 56 different places throughout her married life and marked them all on a map that she had taped to her kitchen wall. She was a woman who presented every indication of having enjoyed life, of leading a good life, and of giving to others; yet, she was a woman who, even after fifty years, felt the shame of being a Home Child (Hewitt, Personal Communication, 1992). Positive comments on her Barnardo’s reports appear not to have been powerful enough to have erased the emotional pain caused by [the] earliest derisive perceptions of all Home Children.

Little Grace was not an imbecile, nor a guttersnipe. She was not a waif nor a stray nor an orphan; but she lived her life with the knowledge and belief that she was thought of as different from many other children she had known and was not as good as other people (Family History, 2012; Personal Correspondence, 1992). My grandmother was not alone in her despair. Thousands of others shared it with her.

Written with love!
Your granddaughter,

Susan Elizabeth (Hillman) Brazeau


REFERENCES

Barnardo Document (1992)

Barnardo Document (1916)

Family History Notes

Grace's Travel Diary, 1965

Personal Correspondence 
ContributorsCreated : 2015-06-07 22:53:21 / Susan Brazeau

Last Updated : 2015-06-08 18:14:53 / Susan Brazeau

Family History ResearchersRootsChatters with family connections to Grace Ruth SILLETT:

Susan Brazeau

 
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IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
24713 SILLETT, Grace Ruth1892ENG, SFK, District of Wangford, Bungay, Holy Trinity Parish Oct 1902 : Colonian CAN Dr. Barnardo Susan Brazeau