Canadian recruitment

[Roger Bardell]

My wife’s grandfather, Stanley Adams, born in Leeds in 1891, went/was sent to Canada, possibly in 1903, at the age of 11.  He appeared in the 1911 Canadian Census in Ontario.

He returned to the Western Front, but I have not been able to find out how, when and where he joined a force, but we believe that horses featured!? Is it possible to tie up any of these loose ends?

Roger Bardell

 

[DavidOwen]

Roger, welcome to the forum

If you believe he may have enlisted in Canadian Forces then you can search for his record here Personnel records of the First World War (canada.ca)

Otherwise can you supply as much info as you have on him, his parents, marriage, any children, previous occupation etc. as all these will help the members to assist you.

Good luck with your research.

[Michelle Young]

https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Search?DataSource=Genealogy|Military|PfFww&FirstName=Stanley&LastName=Adams&

No obvious candidate I can see. 

[DavidOwen]

FMP has one chap surname Adams, not sure of first name born 1891 in Leeds Yorkshire (don't forget there is also a Leeds in KENT) - reproduced below

[Allan1892]

3 hours ago, Roger Bardell said:

My wife’s grandfather, Stanley Adams, born in Leeds in 1891

There is a birth registration for a Stanley Arthur Adams, registered December quarter 1891, Leeds District. Mother's maiden name is shown as Miller.

There is also a birth registration record showing in the GRO Regimental Birth Index for a Stanley A Adams, birth registered in Leeds. The record shows that his father was in the 14th (King's) Hussars.

Can you tie the mother's name of Miller to what you know of Stanley?

[Allan1892]

A search for a birth in the Leeds, Kent area has drawn a blank.

[Roger Bardell]

Thanks, but I have details of birth, mother's maiden name etc, going back a few generations. What I am really stuck with are:-

1. How he came to be in Canada for the 1911 census there.

2. How, where and when he came to return to Europe to serve in the Great War.

Roger Bardell

Thanks, but I have details of birth, mother's maiden name etc, going back a few generations. What I am really stuck with are:-

1. How he came to be in Canada for the 1911 census there.

2. How, where and when he came to return to Europe to serve in the Great War.

Roger Bardell

[Michelle Young]

Many men went to the Dominions pre war, seeking a better life, better pay? Stanley was 20 in 1911 and will have been working for quite a few years by then. Maybe he was sending money back to his family in England. David has found a potential candidate for Stanley above. It wasn’t unknown for a man to come back the mother country to enlist.  There’s no matches in the CEF records that I can see. 
You will have to trawl through embarkations records  to see if you can find Stanley crossing to England I would think. Possibly on Ancestry/FMP. 

[Moonraker]

11 hours ago, Roger Bardell said:

1. How he came to be in Canada for the 1911 census there.

2. How, where and when he came to return to Europe to serve in the Great War.

Before the war Canada experienced high migration from other countries, and in some cases the arrivals' expectations were met with disappointment. British men saw the war, initially expected to last only a few months, as a way of getting regular pay and a chance to get home. And patriotism was also a motivation.

Figures compiled in 1988 split the birth places of the members of the First Canadian Contingent (which trained on Salisbury Plain between October 1914 and February 1915) thus: Canada 9,159; British Isles 18,495; other British possessions 662; United States 756; other foreign countries 523; country of birth not stated 1,032. (These figures total 30,627, a hundred more than the figure often given for the force, not that its personnel records were very accurate.)

But currently we seem to be looking at a Stanley Adams who enlisted in Surrey in January 1915. If he is Roger's grandfather-in- law we can but speculate as to why and how he returned to England. Perhaps just a wish to re-visit the "Old Country" with its childhood memories?

Roger says that Stanley "went/was sent to Canada, possibly in 1903, at the age of 11". Dr Barnado's Homes reckoned that 400 of the Contingent had been Barnado Boys. Quite how the orphanage arrived at this figure is not clear, though between 1882 and 1901 it had sent 8,046 children to Canada, some being boarded with families and others staying in homes opened in Toronto and Peterborough, the latter being mainly for girls.

 

 

[DavidOwen]

I see the only Canadian record for him on FMP is that census entry where he is recorded as born Oct 1892 and a Labourer so it seems unlikely he served in Canadian forces or returned there post war.

I haven't found anything on migration records for him on FMP but there may be one on Ancestry.

[Allan1892]

A search of passenger lists has found:-

SS Grampian, sailed from Liverpool on the 22 March 1910, Stan Adams, a Labourer, unmarried

SS Grampian, arrived Halifax, Nova Scotia, 31 March 1910, Stanley Adams, declared age 18 years, final destination - looks like Nupanee (Ontario)

The Stanley Adams who was born in Leeds (birth registered December quarter 1891) would have been 18 years and 1 to 6 months old when the SS Grampian sailed on the 22 March 1910.

[Moonraker]

OP Roger reckons that his Stanley arrived in Canada in 1903. With due respect to Roger, I think that we have little enough to go on to provide satisfactory suggestions. As we have found before (and in my own personal experience) family recollections can vary greatly, especially relating to events of more than a century ago.

[Allan1892]

4 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

OP Roger reckons that his Stanley arrived in Canada in 1903. With due respect to Roger, I think that we have little enough to go on to provide satisfactory suggestions. As we have found before (and in my own personal experience) family recollections can vary greatly, especially relating to events of more than a century ago.

A search failed to find a Stanley Adams sailing to Canada in 1903. I agree with your comment of 'family recollections can vary greatly ...' -- I too have found that to my own personal experience

[Allan1892]

@Roger Bardell -- May I ask why you believe that he went to Canada circa 1903?

I have tried to find him in the 1911 Canadian Census -- can you post a link to it please?

[Roger Bardell]

I employed a professional genealogist some years ago and she mentioned 1903 without quoting a source. She also provided a (barely legible) copy of the 1911 Canadian census showing him working as a farm labourer in Adulphustown. Ontario.

[Roger Bardell]

It seems that Adulphustown is now part of Greater Napanee, which ties up with the ultimate destination after the arrival on SSGrampian in 1910

[DavidOwen]

The Canadian census is here Allan Canada Census 1911 Image | findmypast.co.uk

It also states his year of immigration as being 1909

[Allan1892]

8 minutes ago, Roger Bardell said:

It seems that Adulphustown is now part of Greater Napanee, which ties up with the ultimate destination after the arrival on SSGrampian in 1910

I am confident that the Stan(ley) Adams that arrived in Canada aboard the SS Grampian is your man. I have attached an image showing his entry in the 1911 Census, I hope it is a bit better than the image you were given.

6 minutes ago, DavidOwen said:

It also states his year of immigration as being 1909

Nothing in passenger lists for 1909 except for a child called Stanley Adams travelling with his parents and siblings aboard the SS Siberian

Edited 11 April by Allan1892

[DavidOwen]

Looking at it all from another angle there is a Stanley Adams in the 1921 census in Glamorganshire married to a Violet Adams Record Transcription: 1921 Census Of England & Wales | findmypast.co.uk He was born 1891 Leeds and worked as a labourer in a colliery.

Finding a marriage certificate suggests Stanley A Adams married Violet Bell in 1918 in Hampshire. Record Transcription: England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005 | findmypast.co.uk

If this was your man it points back to the military service I mentioned above.

[Moonraker]

Presumably OP Roger - or his wife - knows what her grandmother's name was?

(Though admittedly I don't know the first name of my maternal grandmother. I knew her only as "Nana".)

[Allan1892]

2 hours ago, DavidOwen said:

Looking at it all from another angle there is a Stanley Adams in the 1921 census in Glamorganshire married to a Violet Adams Record Transcription: 1921 Census Of England & Wales | findmypast.co.uk He was born 1891 Leeds and worked as a labourer in a colliery.

Finding a marriage certificate suggests Stanley A Adams married Violet Bell in 1918 in Hampshire. Record Transcription: England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005 | findmypast.co.uk

If this was your man it points back to the military service I mentioned above.

Yes, I did come across this last evening but as the OP was wanting to know when SA went to Canada I concentrated my searches on passenger lists which only brought up one contender, the  SA that sailed to Canada in 1910. I have (so far) failed to find him on passenger list returning to the UK.

20 hours ago, Roger Bardell said:

Thanks, but I have details of birth, mother's maiden name

Roger -- is the mother's maiden name Miller?

[Roger Bardell]

Yes.  she was Eleanor Miller, born in St Lawrence, Kent in 1863 an died (possibly in Southampton) 24.01.1958 

[Roger Bardell]

The Glmorganshire reference in the 1921 Census is also correct, as Stanley moved there seeking work: not a good move at that time.  He later moved to Southampton and worked in the docks.