People from all over the world have come to Canada seeking a
better life for their families. Some people scrimped, borrowed and saved to pay
passage to come here. Some came from moneyed families but were not
in line to inherit and were perhaps looking for adventure. Some came as
indentured servants, and some were brought here specifically to work, as for
the railroad, and not always treated well or fairly. These people
came with their own traditions and customs and made Canada the multicultural
country it is today. Books were published and Societies popped up in the cities
to help the new immigrants, i.e. The German Society, Saint Patrick’s Society,
etc.
Scottish Doctor George Mellis Douglas worked at
Grosse Ile from 1832 until his death in 1864, enduring the worst of the cholera
outbreaks. In 1859 Dr. Douglas bought Ile aux Ruaux (just west of Grosse Ile)
and built a huge house there as a retreat from the city. He went down to the
docks to greet the ships of immigrants from Scotland and there he hired my 3x
great-grandfather, who had just arrived with his young wife and daughter. (I
don’t know yet if they came as assisted passengers, still researching). He took
my ancestors to Ile aux Ruaux, where they worked for the next 5 years as farm
servants, to grow food that would help feed the people on Grosse Ile.
Ile aux Reaux
In the late 1800’s Mr. Sifton, newly appointed Minister of
the Interior, took responsibility for homestead expansion into the west. Sifton
initiated a vigorous recruiting campaign aimed at Central and Eastern European
rural peasants. According to Sifton, a "stalwart peasant in a sheepskin
coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten
generations, with a stout wife and a half dozen children" was the right
kind of settler for the Canadian West. This is how my husband’s
mother’s family came to immigrate to Canada from Galicia. They arrived by ship
at Pier 21 Halifax, then went by train to Manitoba, a long arduous journey.
More recently, in the mid 1950’s or so, my parents were
among others at our church that took in a Hungarian child for about a year
while their immigrant parents found work and got settled. Although I was young
it struck me how very hard it was for him, not knowing anyone or speaking the
language. No matter how much clothing my parents bought him he would wear
nothing but the leather shorts he arrived in. He was so happy the day his
parents came to take him to their new home.
Whether your
ancestors immigrated to America, Australia, India, or points beyond… think how
they must have felt! Excitement. Trepidation. Most leaving all they knew and
loved behind, often with a person they just married and barely knew. Women
having their first baby and no mother to help or explain the process. Men
fearful that they would not be able to provide for their new growing family.
Also their families back home, not hearing what became of them for possibly
months. They all have their stories to tell.
Records
of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872 (Check for other states as
well)
