Emigration to Wisconsin 1847 - Rowland Jones & Margaret Humphreys Family

[hiraeth]

This family emigrated aboard the ship Washington Allston of Boston on April 27,1847.  Arriving in Boston Mass June 5, 1847.   One of their daughters Katherine, about age 3, died on the journey on May 22, 1847.  They appear on the US 1850 Census of Courtland Wisconsin.   Rowland Jones was a farmer in Aber in 1841 and I'm curious to learn more about why they left Wales.  Would it have been primarily for religious freedom or?

 

[Huwcyn]

I think quite a lot of it was to do with a wish to own their own land, as the overwhelming majority of Welsh farmers were tenants to large estates.

[Dolgellau]

The migration to Wisconsin in the 19c was also one of the many attempts at creating a Welsh speaking overseas colony.

[hiraeth]

Thanks to you both for the input.   

H   

[Erato]

New land in Wisconsin was opened up for settlement at that time.  It was called 'The Indian Lands.'   All of my American ancestors [four families who were already in North America] relocated to Wisconsin between 1848 and 1850.  It is likely that the availability of land was advertised in the United States and possibly abroad.  Some settlers came to Wisconsin from Britain in organized groups.  There was one such group from England in the area where my ancestors settled in Marquette county.

[brwynog]

Hi Hiraeth
Margaret Humphreys (Griffith actually, her father was Griffith Humphrey but they still used patronymics then) was my 4th great aunt. I've only just discovered that the family migrated. May I ask how you're connected?
It seems that most of the children never married, and the only one who did, Owen, had one son who didn't have children himself.
Rhiannon

[hiraeth]

Hello Rhiannon
My research goes back to Humphrey Mark c1699 to 1788, Griffith Humphrey 1758-1829,  Richard Griffith 1797 to 1877 (Margaret's elder brother), then John Griffiths 1833 to 1909, then Mary Jane Griffiths 1863-1928, then my grandmother Catherine Thomas 1888-1968.  My dad was John Jones 1910-2005.  Not sure what kind of cousins that makes us 
How do you fit in?

[ParryBethel]

Hi hiraeth, I’m descended from Margaret and Richard’s brother Humphrey Griffith (1803-1877). He was my 3rd great grandfather, his daughter Ellen Griffith (1841-1923), her daughter Margaret Ellen Williams (1878-1949), her daughter Ellen Willams (1901-1933) then my mother Nellie Jones (1924-1977) . I think this makes us about 5th cousins. I have a tree on ancestry ParryBethel and I have taken a DNA test.

[Erato]

I don't know if you've seen these descriptions of the settlement of Courtland Twsp. by a semi-organized group of Welsh immigrants.  Cambria is located about 20 miles southeast of the area where my own ancestors settled in 1848/9.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambria,_Wisconsin
https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?id=WI.HistColumb    [see p. 714]