homeboy

noun, chiefly N. Amer., a boy who has been brought up or resettled by a charitable home, orphanage, or similar institution (“homeboy, n.” OED); on Wolfe Island this usually refers to a home child; see also Barnardo children

“Len came to the Island as a homeboy, and then I guess he started off with Tom’s great-grandparents.”

“Was he like a homeboy or anything or just got him from the adoption agency?”

“You’ve heard of the homeboys? Well, boys were kids that grew up in England. And their parents might be- well, I don’t think they had any social assistance then, but they had children, and I think the British government was afraid of them. That is, wouldn’t be long ’til they’d be growing up and be men. So they just gathered them up and shipped them over here. They called them ‘little immigrants’.”