52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2024: Week 28 (TRAINS)
The only train trip I have been on was in 2012 when we went on an Alaskan cruise. We traveled one way from Vancouver to Seward on a beautiful ship.
We then took a train from Seward to Anchorage where we stayed the night before flying back to Vancouver.  |
| Train Car |
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| View from the train |
This was my first trip on a train.
I loved it.
Sadly traveling by train is too expensive to book for a vacation.
That wasn't always the case.
In the past train travel was affordable for the average person.
As recently as 1977 it was affordable according to this interview from the CBC Archives - Via Rail.
Train travel was cheaper than flying in 1977.
Toronto to Montreal:
$18.75 & 6 hrs 25 minutes by rail
$58.32 & 2.5 hours by air
I recreated the trip with today's rates and discovered the train was $102.88 cheaper than flying.
For both trips I chose the cheapest non-stop available.
Toronto to Montreal on August 30th by train (5 hrs 18 mins), and flying (1 hr 22 mins) Montreal to Toronto on August 31st.
Train
Via Rail: $118.00
HST $15.34
Grand total - Canadian dollars: $133.34 Via Rail Toronto to Montreal
Plane
Air Canada: $140.00
Carrier surcharges - Canada: $16.00
Taxes, fees and charges Airport Improvement Fee - Canada: $40.00
Quebec Sales Tax - Canada - 1000043172 TQ1991: $20.49
Goods and Services Tax - Canada - 100092287 RT0001: $10.27
Air Travellers Security Charge - Canada: $9.46
Grand total - Canadian dollars: $236.22 Air Canada Montreal to Toronto
Both bookings would have extra fees attached for baggage, seat selection, and food. Some of the extra charges would have been included items in the past.
Whenever I have looked at train trips I have found them to be very expensive, but I have never looked for just a means of transportation.
All of my queries for train travel have involved vacationing on the train with all inclusive type options.
Our Alaskan train trip was Chris' 2nd time on the train.
I had always wondered how his family had afforded the trip across Canada when he was a child. Listening to that interview I finally understood.
Train travel itself is not the expense - it's the vacation type train trips that don't fit our travel budget at this time.
How exactly does this relate to genealogy?
This week I have been reading about a British Home Child by the name of Winnie Cooper. The book, OUTSIDE THE GATE, was written by Winnie's granddaughter, Carol Marie Newall.
Outside the Gate: The True Story of a British Home Child in Canada
Barlow Book Publishing, Release Date: September 22, 2022
As I was reading I got to thinking about how important train travel was to those arriving in Canada, and this blog took form.
Books like the one noted above are important for our current understanding of what happened to these youngsters sent to Canada from England.
I made a suggestion for purchase to my library last February, and finally checked it out recently.
My reason for suggesting the library purchase it was because I wanted to read it, but also felt it an important book for others to find on their library bookshelf.
Through no fault of their own these children lost everything they knew, and were sent away from their home country to a place that was very different.
The personal shame these children took with them through life is heartbreaking.
The scorn these youngsters received in their new homes and communities is shameful.
Toronto Senator, Frederic Thomas Nicholls, had this to say about these youngster:
"August 7 1891:
We beg to assure him (Dr. Barnardo) that whatever else he may do in his philantropic efforts to purify the slums of London and hoever good and reformed morally, his waifs may be, they are not wanted in Canada. He had better dispose of them elsewhere. 1
"January 5 1894:
We do object that Canada should be made a dumping ground for a class of humanity for whom we have no use and whose presence cannot but be a source of contamination to the rising generation of our country." 1
"April 1891
"These waifs and strays are tainted and corrupt with moral slime and filth inherited from parents and surroundings of the most foul and disgusting character, and all the washing and clean clothes that Dr. Barnardo may bestow cannot possibly remove...There is no power whatever that can cleanse the lepers so as to fit them to become desirable citizens of Canada." 1
How could these young children feel welcomed with messages like the above? They were often separated from their siblings, and completely alone in a foreign country. The loss of relatives and family history was profound.
"Over ten percent of the current Canadian population are descendants of the Home Children, although many are still unaware of their heritage." 2
I have read many marriage registrations where parents names are unknown with a notation of 'home child'.
"That virtually all of the Home Children sent to Canada, alone and separated from others, as they were, have reacted to their fate the same way, withdrawing into themselves, and remaining silent about their past, "building a wall around themselves", as one Home Girl put it, is bitter and conclusive proof of the severity of their trauma. It is also sad evidence that the Child Migration Scheme, however well-intentioned, was seriously flawed." - Dave Lorente of Home Children Canada, 2000" 2
I have written about my 2nd great uncle and 2nd great aunt who were British Home Children sent to Canada under the Dr. Barnardo's Homes. You can read more about Alfred Augustus Baker & Edith Jemima Baker in the links below.Young children arrived to an orphanage in England, then were put on a boat to Canada, and then sent on a train across Canada. It must have been scary for those children of all ages to be riding the trains heading to places unknown.
Many of those children would be too small to be left home alone by today's standards, and yet in the late 1800s and early 1900s they were put on boats and trains to travel all by themselves.
"It wasn’t until 1924 that children under the age of 14 were discouraged from being sent. Even so, some young ones slipped through the cracks. In any case, the majority of children continued to be sent right up until the advent of the Second World War, after which heightened social consciousness condemned the sending of any more children to Canada in this way." 2
A few were adopted, but many were indentured servants.
Their stories must be told. Check the sources below to learn more.
Hearing the stories of small children sent by themselves to Canada!!!
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
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