Descendants of Scotland's 'Home Children,' orphans or abandoned children who were sent to Canada between 1870 and 1938. This mostly Canadian group was photographed at Quarriers Village, near Glasgow, where their forebears once lived. (Nancy Durham/CBC)Descendants of Scotland's 'Home Children,' orphans or abandoned children who were sent to Canada between 1870 and 1938. This mostly Canadian group was photographed at Quarriers Village, near Glasgow, where their forebears once lived. (Nancy Durham/CBC)

When Fred Wardle told me he was returning to Scotland to find out more about his family history, I thought good for him. But I also wondered why?

I had met Fred and his three siblings 12 years ago when they visited Glasgow together and by then they had already gathered many facts about their mother's past.

In fact, they may well have known more than many of us do about our own, less traumatic, family trees.

But their mother's story compelled them to return.

In 1914, Wardle's mother, Catherine McCallum was given up to the Orphan Homes of Scotland because Wardle's grandmother could not afford to keep her or her baby brother, Duncan.

The few years leading up to that decision had to have been desperate for Catherine's mother. Records note that there was a third child — a seven-week-old baby girl by a different father — but what became of her is not known.

Fred Wardle, front row, near Glasgow, on his voyage of discovery. Behind him are his sisters, Lynda Burke (left) and Beth Bruder. Behind Lynda is another sister, Janet Regan. (Nancy Durham/CBC)Fred Wardle, front row, near Glasgow, on his voyage of discovery. Behind him are his sisters, Lynda Burke (left) and Beth Bruder. Behind Lynda is another sister, Janet Regan. (Nancy Durham/CBC)

Given her difficult start in life, it is amazing that Catherine McCallum left such a large, vibrant number of descendants to trace their roots like this.

Then again, maybe not.

In all, around 100,000 "home children" — orphans or wards of the state — were shipped from Britain to Canada from the late 1800s to the start of the Second World War, many to work as cheap domestic labour in remote communities.

Today, it is estimated that nearly one in ten Canadians, which would be over three million people, is descended from them, a sturdy if little known thread in the Canadian fabric.

Quarriers Village

In the 1870s, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, Glasgow was considered a world centre for architecture, shipbuilding and other forms of engineering.

At the same time, people struggled to fit into this new order and Glasgow's streets were filled with hungry, begging children and their destitute parents. Shoe retailer William Quarrier tried to respond to the desperate situation by finding ways to care for Glasgow's neediest children.

Eventually he created an entire village to house them and some of his grand Victorian houses are still in use today, at Quarriers Village in Renfrewshire, just southwest of Glasgow, to help young people without homes or jobs.

Quarriers Village is where Elizabeth McCallum was eventually compelled to hand over her three-year-old toddler, Catherine, and tiny son Duncan in 1914, at the outset of the First World War.

Catherine McCallum, not long after her arrival in Canada in the 1920s. (Courtesy Lynda Burke)Catherine McCallum, not long after her arrival in Canada in the 1920s. (Courtesy Lynda Burke)

It would be their home for the next 13 years, a place where they had only very occasional contact with their mother, perhaps three or four visits in that entire time.

Bad Andy

In September 2009, Fred Wardle, his three sisters, some of their children and one grandchild returned to Scotland to seek more information.

They were part of a mostly Canadian entourage of 57, returning to learn more about their ancestors. Quarriers was promising something new would be revealed to each family.

I caught up with Catherine McCallum's children at Quarriers Village where they invited me to attend a family genealogy session with one of the counsellors.

They were not disappointed, even though the news was grim.

During the session their counsellor produced document after document, each one giving up another small piece of Catherine's story: an application for "poor relief" in 1912, marriage and death certificates, and then a small bombshell.

A photocopy of an official report at the time said: "The husband lifted his money out of the Royal Bank, Govan, amounting to £38. He has not been seen since."

You could hear a "hrmmph" from Fred and intakes of breath from the others as his sister Janet continued reading the report. "He left, the result of a quarrel with his wife."

Fred Wardle sums up the mess, "So good old Andy absconded with the money!"

Catherine McCallum at her nursing graduation in the early 1930s. (Courtesy Fred Wardle)Catherine McCallum at her nursing graduation in the early 1930s. (Courtesy Fred Wardle)

A round of family laughter follows his remark, along with a joke about how it was a good thing no one named any offspring after the errant grandfather.

Well educated

Fred and his sisters also learned that prior to their mother's abandonment her family spent time in a Glasgow poorhouse.

"That was the most shocking thing that we learned today," Janet Regan says. "I think it's very interesting to know our grandmother Elizabeth's circumstances.

"That's one area that we didn't know very much about, how our mother came to be here."

But ending up an orphan in Quarriers' care was not such a bad thing. The philanthropist looked after his charges and educated them to a high standard.

By the time the teenage Catherine arrived in Canada in 1928, it is likely she would have been one of the more educated members of her rural Ontario neighbours.

She was assigned to live with a widow on a farm in North Gower, Ont., not far from Ottawa.

Not surprisingly, she found it a lonely existence and asked to be moved. She had the qualifications to enter nursing school and graduated as a nurse in the 1930s. She later married Reg Wardle, a successful salesman.

Family puzzle

"It's like a puzzle to find all the pieces," Beth Bruder, another of Catherine's daughters, explains of her need to find out more about the family history.

When her mother died in 2002, she "had Alzheimer's," Bruder says. "And as that started to take hold she used to say 'I don't have any family' and I would always say 'Oh mum, you have us, you have all of us.'

Catherine McCallum in her later years. (Courtesy Beth Bruder)Catherine McCallum in her later years. (Courtesy Beth Bruder)

"As she descended into Alzheimer's, I believe she thought more and more about her own roots and I think that was important for us to kind of resolve."

Catherine's younger brother Duncan also came to Canada in 1929, a year after she arrived. They didn't see each other again for another 20 years and he died in his 40s.

Fred Wardle says that he had no idea his mother came from a home for orphans until he was in his early twenties.

His mother clearly felt stigmatized about her upbringing, the children explain. She didn't even tell her husband until years after they were married.

"When she came to Canada, people would make comments," Beth says, "so she learned just not to talk about it."

Understanding where his mother came from has helped Fred Wardle better understand himself, he now says.

"I think some of her attitudes were transferred to us and it was always you know, hold back, don't give all of yourself initially.

"It was always very much 'don't step out of place and don't do this and that.' I think that comes from growing up in these homes."

The astonishing thing, say Fred and his sisters, is how many Canadians have similar stories in their closets.

It has been estimated that as many as 200,000 Canadians are descended directly from the over 7,000 children that Quarriers Village alone sent to Canada between 1871 and 1938.

"Many of them have no idea of that," says Wardle. "There are still families who hide the fact that many of their forebears were home children and I think that's tragic."