Missing the boat

The Sarmatian, of the Allen Line

Today, I came across one of those elusive discoveries that pleases family historians.

One of the Resident Fan Boy's great-great-great-uncles emigrated to Canada in May 1875, in the days when passenger ships had sails.  That's the ship he crossed the Atlantic in, just above.  It took nearly three weeks to reach Quebec City from Liverpool.  

Some months after settling in Stratford, Ontario, great-great-great-uncle wrote a very long letter to the Bury Free Press, back in his hometown of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where his family had been reasonably prominent.

He gave his date of departure, the name of the ship, and spent several paragraphs detailing the rough seas and being slowed to a stop by icebergs.  Then he described the arrival, and journey through several Canadian towns and cities, followed by itemising local birds, animals, and plants.

Being a resident in Canada for seven months - it being late December at the time of writing - he was now an expert in Canadian life and requirements for immigrants.  No more room for "artizans", he declared, while conceding that a cutler was needed.  Immigrants should be young, and not encumbered by small children, if they were to take advantage of the opportunities of this new country.

Funny thing:  At age 45, he'd made the voyage with his wife, and five boys, ranging in ages eighteen months to 16.  In the whole of this epic, informative letter, he never mentioned any of them.