Pier 21 Story and Photo Collections

When Pier 21 closed in the early 1970's, there was a grassroots effort to keep the site alive for Canada's many immigrants as well as the many servicemen and women who passed through the shipyard on their way to and from Europe. The museum encourages Canadians who immigrated through Pier 21, as well as those who came from other sites to submit their immigration story so that it can be used in the future for research as well as in the development of exhibits within the museum. There hundreds of stories that are currently online, visible to anyone who is interested. The stories are set into 10 different categories: Immigrants, British Home Children, Veterans, War Brides, British Evacuee Children, Jewish War Orphans, Child Migrants, Displaced People and Refugees, Hungarian Revolution Refugees and Pier 21 Staff and Volunteers.

The detail of the stories differs between each one. Some describe briefly the journey over to Canada, or the reasons they left, while other stories go into great detail about life in their home country and their new experiences within Canada.

The stories gathered on the pier 21 site have a wide range of countries and nationalities represented throughout, though a majority of the stories collected are from people who immigrated from the UK. A majority of the people immigrating to Canada during the time that Pier 21 was in operation were from England, as the British were preferred over other European immigrants.

During and directly after the war, there was a large influx of children and brides coming from England, and these groups have a special focus on the site. British children evacuated from England were sent to Canada, amongst other countries of the Empire while England was being attacked. British children were sent all over Canada as part of a program until one of the boats was attacked and sank, killing many.

The stories from some of the 50 000 war brides that arrived in Canada often discuss the fear and apprehensions that these women felt as they came to a new foreign country, often with children. They describe the shock that they experienced when they arrived. Many were expecting lives very different from the ones that they had in the Prairies, and some had it much easier than others.

After the Second World War, immigration shifted to many other European countries. There is a lot of information about many Dutch, Italian, German and Hungarian immigrants that arrived in Canada.


While there is a lot of information about many different nationalities of people immigrating to Canada, the website lacks information about any immigrants past 1971, and almost all of the stories collected are from European people. While their focus is on immigrants during the early part of the 20th century, this leaves out Canadians who have immigrated from anywhere East of Europe.