Between 1869 and the late 1930s, British agencies sent more than 100,000 children to Canada. That’s the count from Library and Archives Canada (LAC). The UK’s National Archives, counting only to 1930, puts the figure at 80,000.
Maybe your family tells a story like this one. A great-grandparent crossed the Atlantic alone as a child. Your relatives remember a farm somewhere in Ontario, and perhaps even an orphanage in England or Scotland.
If that sounds familiar, your ancestor may have been one of Canada’s British Home Children. Under Canada’s new citizenship law, that family story could mean you’re already Canadian.
Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship
In March 1889, a nine-year-old named Rob Greenhorn sailed from Scotland on the S.S. Siberian. He shared steerage with his older brother and 128 other boys. He had lost his father at three and his mother at six.
You can still find his entry in LAC’s Home Children records. He landed in Halifax on March 26, 1889, and rode a train to Fairknowe Home in Brockville, Ontario. The agency then sent him and his brother to separate farms.
Many years later, his granddaughter, Beth Greenhorn, joined LAC in 2003. She learned her grandfather was a Home Child in 2012. She described the discovery in a series for the archives’ blog.
She worked at Canada’s national archives and still didn’t know about the Home Child in her own family. Many families may be in the same position, including yours.
A 2010 federal release estimated that 3 to 4 million Canadians were directly descended from former Home Children.
Some of the descendants living outside Canada may be Canadian citizens without knowing it.
Who were the Home Children?
Their name came from their route: an agency’s home in Britain, then a receiving home in Canada. Charities, churches and local poor-relief boards ran the schemes. Many feared that children in Britain’s slums would fall into crime and destitution. LAC calls these groups sending organizations.
The UK’s National Archives says Maria Rye’s agency sent 3,623 girls to Canada. Annie Macpherson’s agency sent about 2,000 children, and Dr. Barnardo’s Homes sent 30,000 between 1882 and 1939.
Agencies placed most of the children with rural families. Most boys worked on farms, and most girls worked as domestic servants. Critics at the time accused the schemes of supplying cheap labour with too little follow-up care.
Rob Greenhorn had lost both parents, but many Home Children had living families. Official records show that some children who were sent came from poor families who couldn’t care for them.
In 2018, Canadian MPs voted 294 to 0 to make September 28 British Home Child Day in Canada.
Why 1947 is the date that matters
When Rob Greenhorn landed in Halifax, Canadian citizenship didn’t exist. Parliament created it as a separate legal status on January 1, 1947. Before that date, Canadians and British-born Home Children alike held the status of British subjects.
A Home Child’s status depends on what happened in 1947. A Home Child living in Canada then may have become a citizen under the first Citizenship Act.
Some British subjects living in Canada that day didn’t become citizens. Parliament closed part of that gap in 2015. It recognized British subjects who were “ordinarily resident” in Canada on January 1, 1947, and hadn’t become citizens that day. “Ordinarily resident” means Canada was their settled home. Their citizenship now counts from 1947, subject to some exclusions.
Some Home Children may have lived and died in Canada before Parliament recognized them as citizens. That recognition applies to citizenship. The Citizenship Act limits its effect under other laws for the years before it took effect.
How it could reach you today
For decades, a rule called the first-generation limit capped citizenship by descent. In most cases, a Canadian parent born abroad couldn’t pass citizenship to a child also born abroad.
Bill C-3 removed that barrier for many families on December 15, 2025. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has guidance for people born abroad before that date. If a parent was a citizen at your birth, IRCC says you’re likely a citizen.
Families can now apply that rule across more than one generation born outside Canada. Take a hypothetical family, one chosen to illustrate the law rather than to represent a typical case.
A Home Child is living on an Ontario farm on January 1, 1947. Her son, born in Ontario, moves to Detroit in the 1950s. His daughter, born in Michigan, could claim citizenship in most cases even under the old rules. Her son, also born in Michigan, couldn’t claim it under the first-generation limit. Under Bill C-3, he may now be Canadian too.
The chain holds only if you can document each generation. A past renunciation of citizenship can break it. Births before 1947 follow their own rules, and so do ancestors who died before the law changed. Those cases need individual assessment.
You may be a Canadian citizen by operation of law and still need a proof of citizenship certificate to show it. You’ll need that proof to apply for a Canadian passport, for example.
Canada allows dual citizenship, so claiming Canadian status doesn’t affect your American citizenship.
Finding the clues in your family
A family story can point you to the records that prove a claim. Start with your oldest living relatives and listen for details like these:
- a child who crossed from Britain or Ireland without parents
- a farm placement in rural Canada
- a name like Barnardo, Quarrier, Macpherson or Middlemore
- a receiving home, such as Fairknowe in Brockville or Marchmont in Belleville
- a relative who kept quiet about their childhood
Then take the clue to the records. You can search LAC’s Home Children records by name. Try spelling variations and approximate arrival years. An entry often lists the ship, the arrival date, and the sending agency, and passenger lists can confirm the crossing.
Next, find out where your ancestor lived on January 1, 1947. Census, passenger, and vital records can help show residence. IRCC holds most citizenship files from that era.
Lastly, build the family chain one generation at a time, starting with birth records. If a record is missing, IRCC lists alternative evidence it may accept. Placement or adoption records alone don’t prove citizenship.
If you find a Home Child in your lineage, your siblings, cousins, and their children may also descend through the same ancestor. The records you gather could support their claims too. Descendants of Canadians who settled in Buffalo or upstate New York use the same logic.
Before you check your eligibility, write down a few details. Note the ancestor you believe was a Home Child, where they lived in 1947, and your records. Some families with complex chains work with an immigration lawyer.
You can check your eligibility using CanadaVisa’s citizenship by descent eligibility checker.
Rob Greenhorn arrived in Canada with a wooden trunk stamped with his name, and a cousin inherited it. If your family has a story like his, start with the oldest relative who might remember it.
Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship