Search Poplar Poor Law Union Home Children Lists

You will find information including name and age.

This record set was formed from a poster of 'deserted children' that was put up in Poplar, London. The poster states that 'notice is hearby given that on the 12th day of December next, the Guardians of the Poor of the Poplar Union will proceed to consider the question of the expediency of assisting the emigration to Canada. Of such of the following children as may be then maintained in the District or other School chargeable to this Union by reason of theri having been deserted, otherwise abandoned, by their Parents, and who by age, physical capacity, and otherwise may then be found to be eligible for such emigration'.

The Poplar Poor Law Union Home Children Lists are records that document the children sent from the Poplar Poor Law Union in East London to Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As part of the British child migration program, these children, often from poor or orphaned backgrounds, were sent to Canada to be placed with families or in agricultural work, under the belief that they would have better opportunities for a prosperous life. The Poplar Union was one of several institutions that facilitated the migration of children under the guidance of charitable organisations and the government.