The working class Shill-Bartholomew family were immigrants from England who arrived in Montreal, Canada separately between 1906 and 1908. Father, John Shill, arrived first. Next, their eldest son, Jack (John) Shill, arrived several months before his mother, Ellen Mary (née Bartholomew) with his siblings, May (Marion), Annie, Bert, Grace and Nell (Ellen).
The eldest daughter, Cara (Caroline), stayed in England.
Before coming to Canada, the Shill-Bartholomew family lived in London, Middlesex and the towns of Melton, Bredfield, Woodbridge, Felixstowe and Ipswich, in Suffolk. Daughters Cara and Anne Shill and Ellen Shill Waddell tell the story of their life in England before coming to Canada.
Life for the Shill-Bartholomew Family in England
Nell Shill Waddell talking about her family members and her parents’ occupations:
My father, John Shill , was born in Clerkenwell, London, England. He was a tailor to start with and he finished up being a male nurse. He went around to houses and helped people being a male nurse. The last thing he did before we came over to Canada, he and my sister, Cara, who was a nurse at that time, they took a house down at Ipswich, Felixstowe, which is a seaside place, and they had patients at home. – Nell Shill
Money was always short as you perhaps know and mother did midwife work bringing babies into the world and usually when this happened, May came home to look after us. When we were young, mother did everything to get a little money and got us all to help her – I remember going gleaning with her and picking up acorns and other things also. I know the wheat was taken to the miller and he thrashed it and gave the flour back to us, am not sure whether the acorns were sold or given to our pigs.
From a letter by Anne Shill to her cousin, Alfred Bartholomew (a Home Child) – Written July 18, 1965
The Family
My mother and father had 9 children but two died when they were young and 7 of us grew up.
The first child, Hannah Ellenor, died very young, about a few days old and the fourth child, Violet Elizabeth, she had a fall and then died of something. My two brothers, Jack (John) and Bert (Herbert) were killed in the 1914 war, and that left 5 girls. My eldest sister, Cara, was a Maternity Nurse too. She stayed in England. She didn’t come over here, when we came over. Bert was the youngest brother. – Nell Shill
