Bringing more British Home Children to Canada than any other organisation, the Canadian Branch of Dr Barnardo’s organisation published the Ups and Downs magazine in Toronto from August 1895 to December 1949. The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) has identified the whereabouts and indexed 141 of the 173 issues that were believed to have been printed.
Each issue averaged between 28 and 36 pages and normally had a ‘boys’ and a ‘girls’ section with various photos, so many of the British Home Children were avid readers. After 1924, when Barnardo’s took over the Macpherson homes, there was a Marchmont Home section that catered to children who came out through Annie Macpherson’s homes. The BIFHSGO site states that ‘over the period of the magazine, approximately 30,000 children arrived in Canada through Barnardo’s and Macpherson’s and the database has about 59,000 names, therefore there is a reasonable chance that any given child is mentioned’. They invite you to get in touch with them – queries@bifhsgo.ca – if you find a name in the database that is of interest in your research and would like to see a particular issue of the magazine.
Brian Rolfe in Ottawa originally started The Ups and Downs Database with help from Gail Collins in St. Catharines, and her crew of helpers. Then after Brian’s untimely death, his son, Thomas, gave BIFHSGO volunteers his films and hard copies which enabled them to finalise the indexing and produce the index in its present form.
What a wonderful resource ….. and a fair few Guild names in there!
