• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Emigration from Birmingham

The Grass is always greener on the other side, But you have to do what you have to do, thats what makes the world go around. Where did the English come from? Saxons, Normans, who knows, Humans have always explored. New places, new faces. new opportunities. Even in England people move around find places that are different, exciting! BUT eveyone has roots and they are always there. I do think (and at my age that IS dangerous!) that you NEVER forget your roots. John Crump an OldBrit NOW in Parker,Co USA
 
We have rels in Australia who emigrated in 1922, from what my rel can remember the family emigrated because of the promise of work in Australia at a time when there was great poverty in post-war Britain. We have a letter written to Marys mom from her dads mom in 1929 which highlights the poverty over here at that time, when the family in Australia had settled and had jobs - my great uncle went with his wife and her parents and his first child. They had 2 more children over there and it is one of these with whom we are still in contact. Also know that another 2nd cousin emigrated too, but not why, he never spoke about his life in Britain apparently but had lost his brother in Gallipoli.
Sue
 
A bit of an old thread. Virtually all of us must have relatives, both close and distant, who have emigrated from Birmingham to far off places - historically Australia, US and Canada probably being the most obvious destinations.

Though not particularly early, the earliest I have is the 1830s and the latest is the 2010s. Knowing what happened to them is not always easy to find out, especially when it comes to Australia.

Anyone with relatives who have left for more exotic places?
 
MWS said:
A bit of an old thread. Virtually all of us must have relatives, both close and distant, who have emigrated from Birmingham to far off places - historically Australia, US and Canada probably being the most obvious destinations.

Though not particularly early, the earliest I have is the 1830s and the latest is the 2010s. Knowing what happened to them is not always easy to find out, especially when it comes to Australia.

Anyone with relatives who have left for more exotic places?
Click to expand...
Just looked through the thread: When I left for the US at 19, an engineer who worked for the same company left for New Zealand. After our last day at work we went to the city, had a few beers and went to the pictures, I think on Steelhouse Lane. Other coworkers were leaving, or talking about going to Canada, one other went to Israel, not sure why. The main reason that the people I knew left, myself included wanted a chance. Being born in 1943, my parents house in Aston bombed my sister and I like many grew up with nothing. My first job in the US was with an aviation company, lots of Brits there.
I was welcomed with open arms, coached and mentored and convinced to go back to University at night which I did for three separate diplomas. A chance meeting introduced me to my wife’s family whose father was a naval architect from the US Naval Academy only motivated me to try to do more. There are three children in the family all with advanced degrees, they had the chance the many growing up after WW2 in the UK never had.
When I stepped of that boat, the SS United States at 7.00am on November 15 1962, with a cabin trunk my Moore & Wright tool box and £100 was a chance, and I got it! As an apprentice making £7/14/6 a week plus all the overtime I could get, it took a long time to save for that ticket.
I have bent the topic I know, my apologies and sorry for the rambling!
 
One of my mother's cousins and his wife emigrated to the Ottowa area of Canada in the 50s I think it was, he did very well, had his own business and a private plane.

Some of my father's family emigrated to New Zealand in the first half of the 1900s. One of Dad's Uncles later came back to Birmingham, not sure exactly what he was doing for work but it involved riding a horse which he didn't like at all!
 
I wonder how much, if any, contact there was between those who went and those stayed afterwards. I suppose in some cases they never saw or heard from each other again.

I was surprised to find out that my g g grandmother went to America a couple of times with her third husband to visit his children (I assume).
 
MWS said:
I wonder how much, if any, contact there was between those who went and those stayed afterwards. I suppose in some cases they never saw or heard from each other again.

I was surprised to find out that my g g grandmother went to America a couple of times with her third husband to visit his children (I assume).
Click to expand...
The lines of communication back when I came in 1962 were basically by letter, maybe telephone which was super expensive.
Today. face time iPhone to iPhone is free. Telephone, emails zoom etc al make communication easy and inexpensive. This should make staying in-touch as easy as can be if you want it.
 
My brother and his family (a wife and 6 kids) went to Australia in 1970 we kept in touch, he came home a few times and I visited them a couple of times. Brother's passed now but his daughter calls me regularly and his sons have stayed with me on visits home.
My own daughter after 5 years in the RAF went to work for GCHQ and was posted all over the world finally settling in Maryland USA where she's now a realtor selling million dollar houses around Chesapeake Bay.
 
Two of my much older cousins married each other and emigrated to Victoria, Australia in the 1960s with 3 of their siblings. I don't how much contact they had with their siblings who remained.

She returned at least once, in the late 1980s I'd guess, and I have a photo of her at my aunt's house with my nan, parents and aunt's family.

It's a funny photo in one sense as in the photo with my (elder) cousin is my youngest one, 48 years between them!
 
Eric Gibson said:
My brother and his family (a wife and 6 kids) went to Australia in 1970 we kept in touch, he came home a few times and I visited them a couple of times. Brother's passed now but his daughter calls me regularly and his sons have stayed with me on visits home.
My own daughter after 5 years in the RAF went to work for GCHQ and was posted all over the world finally settling in Maryland USA where she's now a realtor selling million dollar houses around Chesapeake Bay.
Click to expand...
Eric, great story! The Chesapeake Bay Area is to die for!. Your daughter is blessed. We’re ever able to visit?
 
Richard Dye said:
Eric, great story! The Chesapeake Bay Area is to die for!. Your daughter is blessed. We’re ever able to visit?
Click to expand...
I've been out there a few times Richard, their first place was UK government owned outside Ellicott City then when they resigned from their GCHQ jobs they bought a bungalow with a couple of acres of woodland on the edge of Cornflower creek which feeds into the bay.
Her husband had a brain haemorrhage so they needed to move closer to the city so they're now right in the centre of Annapolis.
 
Eric Gibson said:
I've been out there a few times Richard, their first place was UK government owned outside Ellicott City then when they resigned from their GCHQ jobs they bought a bungalow with a couple of acres of woodland on the edge of Cornflower creek which feeds into the bay.
Her husband had a brain haemorrhage so they needed to move closer to the city so they're now right in the centre of Annapolis.
Click to expand...
I had a large equipment project not too far from Elliott City so I know a little bit about it. My father in law graduated from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis so we were there a number of time especially when we lived in NJ.
We built our dream retirement home in Beaufort SC (I’m sure your daughter will know), right on the water. I hadn’t retired yet but started to have some health problems and Beaufort was a picturesque small town and only a small hospital. We sold it and bought a new home in Franklin TN where we are surrounded by three great hospitals as well as Vanderbilt Medical center, unfortunately we have used all of them. I think that was a very good move for your daughter and son in law!
 
MWS said:
Two of my much older cousins married each other and emigrated to Victoria, Australia in the 1960s with 3 of their siblings. I don't how much contact they had with their siblings who remained.

She returned at least once, in the late 1980s I'd guess, and I have a photo of her at my aunt's house with my nan, parents and aunt's family.

It's a funny photo in one sense as in the photo with my (elder) cousin is my youngest one, 48 years between them!
Click to expand...
48 years, wow!
 
My g. greataunt born 1851 Dudley emigrated to New South Wales age 35 with husband and children in 1886. She has many descendants there. No one else in the family went to Australia, but it certainly worked out for them. Before her marriage she had been a domestic servant, it must have been an extraordinary voyage and new life.
 
Stokkie said:
My g. greataunt born 1851 Dudley emigrated to New South Wales age 35 with husband and children in 1886. She has many descendants there. No one else in the family went to Australia, but it certainly worked out for them. Before her marriage she had been a domestic servant, it must have been an extraordinary voyage and new life.
Click to expand...
Yes, for someone has taken the extraordinary voyage and it is truly that. I was fortunate to have my sister here. Your gr great aunt had her family with her.
As we, my wife and I realize the importance of family! As my mother in law who I loved dearly would say “you can pick your friends but not your relatives”. The positive spin on that is that you don’t get to choose but love them anyway, and she/we did.
 
I'm sure I've mentioned it before but my 3 x g grandad's brother emigrated to Australia (2 children died on the voyage), then to California and then back to Australia (without his wife and most of his children).

Luckily there was even a bit of a report about the first voyage.
 
Don't forget a lot of 'emigration' was via the British Home Children scheme from the late 1800's to around 1970.
Usually put forward as charity for deprived children to give them a better life, many ended up being ill treated as virtual slaves.
A lot went to Canada and Oz and I now have extended family in Nova Scotia
 
bestcover said:
Don't forget a lot of 'emigration' was via the British Home Children scheme from the late 1800's to around 1970.
Usually put forward as charity for deprived children to give them a better life, many ended up being ill treated as virtual slaves.
A lot went to Canada and Oz and I now have extended family in Nova Scotia
Click to expand...
I have done a couple of project in Nova Scotia, winters are very long and the weather can be brutal. I once went in the summer from NS to Lincoln NB. I left NS early in the morning it was 30f when I landed in Lincoln after two plane changes it was 100f!
 
The Forum has a thread concerning Middlemore Child emigration…

Dennis Williams

Thread 'Middlemore Children’s Emigration Homes'

Spurred on by a plaintive post by a Jeanie Ellis on another blog, who posted an Emigration Form for her old Great Uncle, Jim Cooper...who was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada from the Middlemore Homes in 1905, for a 'better life'.......so I turned to Peter Higginbotham for some more info on the Middlemore story.....this is what she and he wrote.......

Children's (Middlemore) Emigration Homes, Birmingham, Warwickshire
In 1872, the Children's Emigration Homes in Birmingham were founded by John Throgmorton Middlemore (1844-1924), the son of a wealthy leather manufacturer...
  • Appreciate
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top