MIDDLEMORE ATLANTIC SOCIETY NB CANADA

NELLIE ROSE DANIELS

   Nellie Rose Daniels was born on March 7, 1891 in Birmingham to Rose Ann (Southam) and Walter Wallace Daniels.  Walter was listed as a “Brick Layer, Journeyman”.  The birth was registered on Apr 14, 1891 at All Saints, Birmingham.

Nellie was baptized on May 6, 1891 in the parish Ladywood, St John, Warwickshire.  Her parents were listed as living on Clark Street.  Walter was a bricklayer.

  At this time, they were living 2 Frances Building on Cape Street, Birmingham, a 3 room flat. Nellie was Josiah Charles Southam’s ½ sister.  He was born in 1870.

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=4961

She had 2 older brothers, Walter Wallis and William Dudley (died at birth) and an older sister, Edith.

  By 1901, the family had moved to 9 Brearley Street, Handsworth, Staffordshire. 

Between 1901 and probably 1905, the family moved to Worcestershire. She was growing up and no doubt going to school until 1903.

   The family must have come upon hard times due to finances or poor health in the early 1900s.  (About 4% of the population was classed as “paupers”) According to the 1901 UK Census, her older sister Edith (8 years old) had moved in with her oldest brother Walter Wallis (22 years old).  Walter was living at 133 Johnson Road in Erdington with his wife Harriet (23) and son Walter (8 months).  JCS was married and living in Smethwick with his wife Elizabeth Martha (Mynott) and daughter Rose Margaret Daniels (b1897).  This left Nellie, Rose Ann and Walter Wallace still living at home at 9 Brearley Street, King’s Norton, Worcestershire.

    Nellie was sent off to the Worcester Union Workhouse at Tallow Hill managed by the Worcester Poor Union, probably only about 12 years old.  Workhouses were established in order to take the poor and disadvantaged paupers off of the city streets.  Inmates were put to work picking oakum, rock breaking and cleaning.

The Worcester Poor Union had asked Middlemore to help re-settle her in Canada.  From the workhouse, she spent 3 months at the Middlemore Children's Emigration Home for Girls on Spring Road in Birmingham.  She was sent with a shipment of Middlemore children to Canada.

    Permission was to have been received from the parents but often the parents could have been either dead, not found or just couldn't care less.  Girls were sent as Domestics (household cleaners and servants).  Boys were sent as farmers or labourers. 

    On June 12, 1906, Nellie left the New Street Station in Birmingham by train for Liverpool.  She arrived the same day at the docks in Liverpool, along with 159 other Middlemore children, with a Miss Riley in charge, and boarded the steamship “SS Siberian”, one of the Allan Line ships.   It was a 3 masted steamship capable of making the journey to Canada in 10 days.  The ship first docked at St. John’s, Nfld, probably for ½ day to refuel and resupply.  It docked at Halifax on June 23, 1906.  The passenger list states that she was 13 years old but she was actually 15.  Records were most of the times quite inaccurate.  From the dock in Halifax she went on to the Fairview House in Halifax.  This house was Dr. Middlemore’s receiving home in Canada where Nellie continued her religious education and training. 

   Canadian families wanted British children to work on their farms as labourers and housekeepers. Families requesting children had to be recommended by their pastor and have applied to Middlemore.  Once approved, the family would show up at the receiving home on the day that the new shipment of children arrived and then select their child

    Her first placement from the home was in 1906 to guardian Neil P. McKay in Inverness, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, about 150 miles NE of Halifax.  Her 2nd placement was in 1907 with guardian Donald J. McKay, also in Inverness.  Each placement lasted about 6 months. 

   She went on to Quebec City from Halifax on board the “SS Corsican”, arriving on July 20, 1907.  She then traveled to Montreal by the GTR. Her destination was reported as Stratford. Usually, children would board the Grand Trunk Railroad train and be forwarded on to Ontario.  Dr. Middlemore did not have his own network of receiving homes in Ontario.  He used those of Annie MacPherson, also into the business of saving the British poor.

She must have stayed for a while at the MacPherson House at 51 Avon Street, Stratford.  She may have moved in with her ½ brother JCS for a while.

    On Dec 26, 1910, Nellie married Albert Frederick Hall in Stratford. Her surname listed on her marriage certificate was “Southam”.  Albert was born in Dec 1886 in Shoreditch, London, England and immigrated to Canada in 1904.  He was a “Pipe Fitter Railroad Shop” employee who started working for the GTR on Nov 6, 1904.  In 1910, he worked 50 hours per week for 50 weeks earning $420 for the year.  He had $340 of life insurance.  He must have known JCS because they worked at the same place.  Nellie and Albert lived at 52 North Street, Stratford.  Present at the marriage were Clara May Hall (Albert’s sister-in-law) and Walter Hall (Albert’s brother).

Albert died on September 29, 1918.  He served in the CEF in WW1, 58th Battalion, and was KIA in France.  He was buried in the Anneux British Cemetery in Cambrai, France.  (see AFHww1.doc)  They were living at 328 Salisbury Street in London.

    In the Canada 1921 Census, taken on June 1, 1921, Nellie is listed as being a lodger at the Tecumseh Hotel in London, Ontario, employed as a waitress.

    After Albert died, Nellie married Alfred Ernest Meehan on Oct 1, 1921 at City Hall in London, Ontario.  He was born in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England on April 6, 1892.  He immigrated to Canada on the "Empress of Britain", leaving Liverpool and arriving in St. John, NB, on Feb 18, 1911, his destination was Woodstock, Ontario.   In 1945, they were living at 1081 Adelaide Street, London.

    Alfred Ernest Meehan died on May 26, 1946.  He was buried in the Woodland Cemetery in London, Ontario (Section F, Lot 205). Nellie died in June 25, 1952 and is buried at the Richmond Hill Presbyterian Church Cemetery at 10066 Young Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario.

http://twgpp.org/information.php?id=1377314