Immigrating and Returning Home

[DianaCanada]

A number of years ago I read a book about immigration to the U.S. and there was an interesting section on people who moved there but then returned home.  Italians seemed to do that a lot. Of course, it would have been easier once transportation improved.
I have three cases I can think of in my own family (all 20th century) - my grandparents came to Canada in 1926, returning home to Lancashire a couple of years later, only to come back very soon after.  Good thing they did as my father would never have joined the Canadian army during WW2 and met my mother in England, and I wouldn’t exist.  My great grandfather immigrated to Springfield, Massachusetts early in the 20th century, only to return to spend his golden years running a guesthouse in Blackpool.  A first cousin of my mother’s lived in Australia for around 40 years before returning to retire back home in Sussex.

[Gillg]

A friend of mine emigrated to Australia with her husband and family, only to return after a couple of years - she said she couldn't stand the flies!  And many years ago now a colleague emigrated to New Zealand but returned, saying that there was no culture there! (Sorry, Kiwis!) The grass is often greener on the other side. ( I nearly became a £10 Pom, but chickened out at the last moment.)

[aghadowey]

Sometimes people assume that once someone left home they never returned. My grandfather's aunt went to Damascus in Syria to teach in the 1800s, returned to Ireland, then married and went to India where she stayed until her husband died. Returned home to Ireland with her stepson and lived in a house near his school. She travelled to America visiting relatives several times and eventually lived in the homeplace with her unmarried sisters.

[Jebber]

I knew a family who emigrated to New Zealand in 1963, two weeks after arrival they booked their passage back  to the UK.

My sister lived in Auckland and  offered to put them up until they knew what part of NZ they wanted to settle in. She couldn't believe it when  they decided they didn't like it after only a week.

Talk about mad behaviour, they didn't give the Country a chance, not to mention what a tremendous waste of money. We could never understand how anyone could make such a drastic decision after such a short time.

My husband and I couldn't afford to go out for a visit until our family was grown up, by then my sister had died. We later had wonderful holidays there and explored most of both islands,we could have happily settled there.
 

[coombs]

My 3xgreat grandfather emigrated to America in 1886 but returned to the UK in about 1890 and is counted in the 1891 census back at the Co Durham village where his UK children and grandchildren lived, then in April 1892 he set sail for America again, never to return to England after that. He is on the 1900 Pennsylvania census aged 72 and died sometime after that date.

[Erato]

None of mine are to known have given up on the New World and gone back home.  Maybe it's because (except for my mother) they were all relatively early immigrants - some in the 1600s and three batches between 1834 and 1840ish.  It wasn't so easy to turn around and go home in the earlier years.  As far as I know, my mother is the only one who ever returned home to visit family.  My mother resisted naturalization for many years, but the others quickly naturalized and seemingly had no serious regrets about emigrating or renouncing their British citizenship.

[DianaCanada]

I knew a family who emigrated to New Zealand in 1963, two weeks after arrival they booked their passage back  to the UK.

My sister lived in Auckland and  offered to put them up until they knew what part of NZ they wanted to settle in. She couldn't believe it when  they decided they didn't like it after only a week.

Talk about mad behaviour, they didn't give the Country a chance, not to mention what a tremendous waste of money. We could never understand how anyone could make such a drastic decision after such a short time.

My husband and I couldn't afford to go out for a visit until our family was grown up, by then my sister had died. We later had wonderful holidays there and explored most of both islands,we could have happily settled there.

More migration than immigration but over forty years ago, my ex and my pregnant self drove over 4000 km to live briefly in the lovely Rocky Mountain foothills in Alberta before returning to Quebec within a few months.  Homesickness was the main issue, and just being so far from family.  Over the years it has been common for people from eastern Canada to “go out to Alberta” (some of you may recognize the line from a song by Ian Tyson), many have stayed but many returned home.

[Erato]

"they decided they didn't like it after only a week"

You have to wonder what they were expecting and how they knew after just a few days that NZ didn't meet their standards.

[coombs]

Pennsylvania death registration began in Jan 1906 so I assume my ancestor died before then, but obviously after the 1900 US census, as he cannot be found in the 1906-onwards death indexes under any variant. I think up to December 1905, deaths were reported locally in PA but not all of the were reported.

Nice to know he lived out his final decade in America though. His paternal grandfather also spent time in the US in the 1770s and returned to Britain in 1783.