Families of Immigrants: Finding Their Stories

The Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

Why did they come and why did they leave? There were always good reasons for both, reasons that shed light on the lives they lived in the old country and the lives they led in the new world, once, and if, they arrived.

Many immigrants did arrive, usually in groups following those who had gone before and followed by more in turn. When searching for your family’s story, it is often difficult to find written memories of their immigration experience or, even sometimes, the passenger list showing when they traveled and the ship or other means that conveyed them to their new life. But diaries, letters and books can fill in some of the details of other immigrants’ experiences, immigrants from the same area and time period that can help give an idea of what your ancestor experienced. When writing about my immigrant Scots, I used various sources to find out what their journeys would have been like.

This same method can be used to fill in details of the immigrant experience. When I questioned why my grandfather’s first job was in Craig, Saskatchewan, I found that the answer was the government facilities in place at the time, an answer I found in a book about immigration to Canada.

Immigrants came to North America from many different lands. The family lines that I have research have predominantly come from the British Isles. As I what I write is related to my family history research, I have not covered many immigrant groups who make up the Canadian mosaic or the American melting pot. I have only written about what I know but I have many more immigrant stories to research and, hopefully, many more stories to bring to light. They were all travelers in their own way. I hope that I can find traces of the early journeys from old world to new and from even before that in the times that the Vikings roamed the land of the Western Isles. 

The shores of Islay, Scotland