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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Grrroannn. TEd , s'about time you come on back. 
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Dragging this thread back to within a bull's roar of the original topic ("Repaint and thin no more", indeed!), I was quite sad that the diary ended where it did. I don't think she was that remarkable a young lady (although she could read and write, which certainly makes her unusual). But she recorded the mundane and gives an insight into what it was like on those migrant ships. Of course, it was also sad that she popped her clogs so soon after arrival, but that was normal in those days.
I have often wondered how anyone could bear the tedium of a three or four-month one-way voyage to a completely unknown and non-understood destination. When I immigrated to Britain from the Zild in 2001, (a) I had been here before, and (b) it could have taken two days, although, as most of you know, we dragged it out to nearly three months from choice. As a matter of fact, the other day I found a photo of Sandra and me standing by the statue of Glenn Frey on "The Corner" in Winslow, Arizona during that trip. Not quite the same thing at all.
But I have often wondered how my great-great grandparents felt after, say, a month at sea. Bad food, deteriorating water, clothing inadequate in any climatic extreme at all, heavy seas making them sick and getting them wet for days on end - and no definite day to look forward to when it would all be over. Ketura Davies brings it all to rather revolting life.
Since my antecedents also came to New Zealand via Australia in 1860, it is entirely possible that they may have been on the same ship as young Ketura. Now THAT would be unusual and remarkable. I've emailed the Hocken Library in Dunedin to find out if they have any records, since such information was kept, quite meticulously, in both the Strine and Zild. My oldfers came out on to Australia on the same ship, but apparently they didn't actually know each other before they boarded it. There has been some suggestion that their marriage was contrived without benefit of clergy and that they just hopped the boat to New Zealand from Australia without bothering much with the usual formalities.
I'll let you know!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Fascinating, Pfranz - look forward to hearing ifn you find out anything more! And yes, it was indeed the sheer ordinariness of her account that quite appealed to me in a strange sort of way.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
That's quite wonderful - thank you Jackie!
Did you see this note at the end of the accompanying text:
Permission to use Keturah's diary as an archive has been granted by:
Mrs Donne Dunn, 6 Torvill and Dean Lane, Cashmere, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Mrs Dunn is a great granddaughter of Jane Davies and a granddaughter of Elizabeth Carter.
Extraordinary to think there are still such direct and well-documented connections available... I am tempted to ask amongst the local Davies in the village about how much they are already aware of this stuff - it's prolly old hat to them but.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Just as a note : The first immigrant through Ellis Island was Annie Moore.
(In case you ever get the question in a game.)
She survived the trip, was met by family, went to Texas where she raised a family. Some stories do have happy endings.
Thank you for that link.
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
>And yes, it was indeed the sheer ordinariness of her account that quite appealed to me in a strange sort of way.
I wonder what the mortality rate was on those trips. Some of my ancestors made the trip from Ireland to Zild in the 1850s, while others had travelled here from Blighty in the 1840s, so reading her account makes me think I'm lucky to be alive at all.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Here's a link to a diary by one Margaret Mathieson that I found while following some links that Jackie sent me. Our Maggie was a good Presbyterian and fairly bloody sanctimonious with it, although she gets much less churchy as the voyage goes on. Since the Captain was a drunk and the mate was argumentative, it must have been a lively voyage! http://www.geocities.com/nz_morrison/math_diary.htm
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Gee-minently--on some tiny, no doubt smelly, ship from Feb. 27th. to the 6th. of August! Paying passengers? So what?
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