My grandfather, George BOWDEN was born in Battersea, Wandsworth, LONDON in Aug 1895 - he was a twin (brother was Alfred). They were the children of John and Eliza, with 3 older siblings, (William, Thomas and Nellie aka Helen). Another brother, Robert, was born in 1902. Mother, Eliza died in 1913.

At some point, George was sent to Canada (a civil service application he filed in 1940 indicates that he attended school in Toronto in 1910 at age of 15) and my best guess is that he was sent under the Home Child scheme since most of the family remained in England. He listed his years of elementary school from 1902 to 1910 but I don't know if that was in UK or Canada. "Family lore" says that the parents were alcoholics, making it a distinct possibility that Grandfather could have been sent into a "Waifs and Strays" home or to Canada.

I've recently found "sample" case records online of children who went into the COE's Society for Waifs and Strays homes between the 1880's and early 1900's.

I'm wondering if anyone knows how you can go about having a search done of their complete records and if a record is found, obtain a copy??

Thanks! Christy Pedersen