Question re emigrating

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 4:56 pm

Hi Folks,

Does any one know if when someone was emigrating to USA from UK in the 1880s would they have to have a reason for going?
I have a family who went to Boston but i would like to know why they decided to leave in the first place.

Ailsa

Muriel · Post by **Muriel** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:15 pm

Hi Ailsa

Lots of reasons & some of them might depend on their ages when they went and what they did. Mainly a better life. I know that if they were miners, there were coal fields opening up in the US and they were looking for skilled labour to be overseers & managers of the unskilled labour coming in from eastern Europe. I guess the same applied to people in the iron & steel & other manufacturing industry.

They might have been going to join family already there. Or possibly not - my great-great grandparents emigrated to New England in their mid-60s, in about 1870, and as far as I know they had no family there. Not that I've found anyway. Presumably GGGpa went to a job (he was a cotton spinner). They were later joined by one of their daughters when she was widowed and, after her father's death, by another daughter, also after she was widowed. A bit different from the usual parents joining their children.

Certainly by the 1880s the first flush of the industrial revolution was well over in this country and some industries were already feeling the pinch from cheap imports so the lure of a better life would be quite powerful.

Muriel

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:55 pm

Thanks Muriel for the interesting reply. My gt gt grandmother left Glasgow in 1883 after her husband was drowned at sea. She went with her two daughters and her two sons followed shortly, another son married in Glasgow and also emigrated to Boston.
I just wondered why they decided to go there in the first place. It would have been a help if they had to disclose who and why they were going.

Ailsa

Post by **Tracey** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 6:08 pm

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/ti ... grnts.html

I usually Google the time period of any of mine found emigrating to see what was going on in that particular part of the world then, especially if it doesnt give any clues as to why or to whom they were going on the manifest.

Post by **Anne H** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:42 pm

I do the same thing for historical background, Tracey. I like that link you gave and it looks like there's some good information for Minnesota...thanks!

Regards,
Anne H

Post by **Tracey** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:52 pm

Anne, I like sites that are dead simple and to the point. For me when i need to look up something there is nothing more off putting than page after page appearing of size 8 font to read when usually one page of size 10 will do !

Glad you like it !

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:14 pm

I managed to trace my family to where they settled in Massachusetts and found the address of two living relatives. After carefully wording a letter to them (there was a bit of illegitimacy going on which needed explaining) i waited for months and have had no reply from either address. It is a bit disappointing as with the help of Sarahnd on this site we put a lot of effort into finding them on ships and then censuses.
Anyway at least i found them after years of looking

Ailsa

Lorna Allison · Post by **Lorna Allison** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:19 am

Ailsa, interested that it might be the dreaded illegitimacy thing raising its head again. After considerable arm twisting by American 2nd cousins I researched their gt. grandmother, who turned out to have been the soul of hospitality to other immigrant members of her husband's family - BUT - she had been born illegitimately.

Since then we still receive the Christmas greetings, but definitely no allusion to family history

Lorna

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:44 am

Thanks Lorna,

You might be right, but you would think with it being so long ago it would not matter. Also it is family history for them.
Also they seem to have been active in the church so that's maybe another reason why they are not interested. Their loss i think. (Maybe i won't be visiting them after all).

Ailsa