WW1 poem from BC to England

[Rossdal3]

Thanks very much JJ. I appreciate you looking this up for me.   kind regards Jill

[chinakay]

Marital status: to be married - J Holdsworth butcher & <something>

I think that reads "butcher 4 months"....two entries above there is another passenger to be married, also to a butcher apparently, and the intended's name is followed by "10 months"...

Cheers,
China

[Rossdal3]

thanks China!     I have some great information from this post, thanks so much to all concerned   

I was thinking that all my family lines just died out ie. had girls, but now I'm researching further, it seems that many of the males emigrated and then sent for wives or girlfriends.  What an adventure/leap of faith!!! 

Cheers,
Jill

[chinakay]

Yes, really....I think it was rather common...a man would arrive in a strange new land and scope it out a bit...get settled, find work and a place to live, then send for the family.

Have you ever seen a film called The Emigrants? Liv Ullmann & Max von Sydow. It's about a family in Sweden...their farm could only grow stones it seemed...their barn burned down, they lost a little child who ate raw porridge, things went from bad to worse...They decided to emigrate to the new land of Minnesota Territory in America. They went as a family, though, but the scene of their leaving the farmstead in a wagon with all their tools and everything they possessed...waving farewell to the old folks who stayed behind whom they would never see again...a very poignant portrait of all those who made that leap of faith.

They were a real family. They carved a home out of untouched wilderness and they, and others like them, made this country. The family farm is just a few miles from where I live.

That film and its sequel, The New Land, are well worth a look if you ever come across them.

Cheers,
China

[Rossdal3]

Thanks China, I will certainly have a look for the film.  One of my families emigrated to South Dakota in the late 1800s.  They married at 16 & 18 years old respectively and had buried 3 children in England before they emigrated.  They went on to have 16 children in all and homesteaded on the prairie.  It must have been a complete culture shock, but they stayed. The family story is that Sarah, pregnant with her 16th child found her kitchen inadequate and so she built a whole new kitchen as an extension to the existing home.  They were certainly bred tough in those days.

They did seem to visit England regularly, around the time someone in the family died.  They both lived to a good old age as well.

regards,
Jill

[J.J.]

I'm not sure if I am out of line to request this, Jill, as you've not posted it...
but we'd love you to share the poem on the thread....J.J.

[Rossdal3]

Hi JJ,

I would love to post it, it's presented beautifully and well worth seeing.  Problem is I have it as a jpg file that is over 6MB and I don't have the software to resize it.

I've tried to copy and paste the words, but that doesn't work.  Any ideas welcome and I'll see if I can come up with something.

kind regards,
Jill

[J.J.]

I'll p.m. my email address right away, & you can send it to me....I'll resize it...OOOOHHHHH
Thanks for sharing....Looking forward to reading it....

[Rossdal3]

Thanks JJ!  I've sent the poem and envelope it came in to you to resize.  I'm just hoping it doesn't crash your email.

Cheers,
Jill