There's no place like home: a study on World War II war brides and their families in Northwestern Ontario

Chassé, Maeghan (2019) There's no place like home: a study on World War II war brides and their families in Northwestern Ontario. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

During the Second World War an estimated 48,000 women, mostly from the United Kingdom, met and married Canadian soldiers who were stationed overseas (Oosterom 2011, 26). These women immigrated to Canada as new wives and new mothers and came to be known as “war brides.” This research examines war brides who settled in Northwestern Ontario and explores how these women created home and community in their new environments, as well as how they made meaning in their lives through traditional expressive culture. Consequently, this study is as much about war bride families as it is about war brides-- perhaps even for so. In this study I ask: How were war brides able to create “home” in a new country so far away from their families? And, how did ideas of home get passed on to the children of war brides? Most importantly, I ponder the concept of “home” and how it is understood differently by so many people. These questions are explored through three folklore genres: foodways, family narrative, and material culture.

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