Came across this site last night. No specific mention of Co. Down but lots of the surnames are "Down" names. e.g. 15 year old Bernard MARMION =================== 100,000 British Home Children (alleged orphans) were sent to Canada by over 50 British Child Care organizations. These 4-15 year old children worked as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old. The British Child Care organizations professed a dominant motive of providing these children with a better life than they would have had in Britain, but they had other ignoble and pecuniary motives. They rid themselves of an unwanted segment of their society and profited when they sold these children to Canadian farmers. Siblings in care in Britain were separated from their families and each other. Siblings were separated from each other when they were sent to Canada. Most never saw each other again. Many spent their lives trying to identify their parents and find their siblings and most were unsuccessful. An unknown number of children ran away from their indentured labour in Canada to the United States. Millions of Americans may be descended from British Home Children. The 4-5 million Canadian/American descendants of the British Home Children have 20 million British Grandparents, Uncles, and Aunts. How could this many people not know they are related to one another? Their mutual searches have been hampered by the unwillingness of the childcare organizations to readily release vital personal information. ======== http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~britishhomechildren/ Fiona. IGP Co. Down Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~nirdow2/