"So Far Away" is our theme word for this week. I am always impressed by the long journey's that my ancestors made to create a better life for themselves and their children. I have written about the 6 week wagon train journey from Illinois to Texas of Zachary Taylor and Eliza Reed Clark, my great, great grandparents,
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/aunt-nay-clark-story-of-maiden-aunt.html.
But, I guess the journey that my immigrant ancestors made from Europe to the New World, is even more impressive. I do not know all of my immigrant ancestors' names, where they all came from or when they came over. But, I do know quite a number of them. Of the ones I know, at least 20 of them came to this new land in the 1600's and at least 40 came in the 1700's. There are probably more, but I am still researching those centuries! I have written about a couple of them who came over in the 1600's: Benjamin/Benoir Brasseur/Brashear,
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2020/01/long-line-brasseur-brashear-brashears.html and Thomas Graves of Jamestown,
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2019/06/earliest-captain-thomas-graves-1608.html.
Writing this post gave me the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the conditions of the passengers from these time periods, and I found a couple of first hand accounts that I would like to share with you.
Even though I did not have anyone (that I am aware of) who came on the Mayflower, I did find a first hand account of one of the passengers, William Bradford, who told about their experience. The journey of 102 Pilgrim passengers departed September 6, 1620 and arrived at Cape Co on about November 11, 1620, 66 days on the sea. Here is an excerpt:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/mayflower.htm. In this same story is mentioned "yet according to the usual manner many were afflicted with seasickness". I can't imagine being on a ship for 66 days with no fresh food or water, and no bathroom! I have to admire those immigrants who persevered through these incredible circumstances!
And apparently 66 days was a rather short trip!! This is a more complete story of the voyage of the German organ master and school master, Gottleb Mittelberger "who left one of the small German states in May 1750 to make his way to America. He arrived at the port of Philadelphia on October 10. That is 5 months! Here is an excerpt from his journal published in 1898:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/passage.htm
The journal also discusses the situation that many of the passengers were indentured servants, bound to work for the person who paid for their passage on the ship. Some, who didn't have the money were even "sold" when they arrived and then became indentured. And it mentions that children, especially if they had no parents who had survived the journey, were indentured until they were 21 years of age!
Leaving the homeland of your ancestors and very likely family members who you would never see again, had to be extremely difficult for anyone coming to the New World. But then to have to face these circumstances during the sea voyage, it's more than I think I could endure. And for many, then facing a long indenture to pay for that journey.
But, they did it. Hundreds of thousands of people, over the past 400 years have made that leap of faith and subjected themselves to unbelieveable hardship to give us, their descendants, a better life. I am grateful to them for making that decision and then following through and facing whatever came their way.
"Til Next Time!
#52Ancestors
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/aunt-nay-clark-story-of-maiden-aunt.html.
 |
| https://www.lindaleegraham.com/crossing-the-atlantic/ |
But, I guess the journey that my immigrant ancestors made from Europe to the New World, is even more impressive. I do not know all of my immigrant ancestors' names, where they all came from or when they came over. But, I do know quite a number of them. Of the ones I know, at least 20 of them came to this new land in the 1600's and at least 40 came in the 1700's. There are probably more, but I am still researching those centuries! I have written about a couple of them who came over in the 1600's: Benjamin/Benoir Brasseur/Brashear,
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2020/01/long-line-brasseur-brashear-brashears.html and Thomas Graves of Jamestown,
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2019/06/earliest-captain-thomas-graves-1608.html.
Writing this post gave me the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the conditions of the passengers from these time periods, and I found a couple of first hand accounts that I would like to share with you.
Even though I did not have anyone (that I am aware of) who came on the Mayflower, I did find a first hand account of one of the passengers, William Bradford, who told about their experience. The journey of 102 Pilgrim passengers departed September 6, 1620 and arrived at Cape Co on about November 11, 1620, 66 days on the sea. Here is an excerpt:
After they had enjoyed fair winds and weather, they encountered many times, crosswinds, and met with many fierce storms, with which the ship was thoroughly shaken, and her upper works made very leaky; and one of the main beams amidships was downed and cracked, which put them in some fear that the ship could not be able to perform the voyage. So some of the chiefs of the company, perceiving the mariners to fear the condition of the ship, as appeared by their mutterings, they entered into serious consultation with the master and other officers of the ship, to consider whether to return, rather than to cast themselves into desperate and inevitable peril. And truly there was great distraction and difference of opinion amongst the mariners themselves.The complete story can be found here,
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/mayflower.htm. In this same story is mentioned "yet according to the usual manner many were afflicted with seasickness". I can't imagine being on a ship for 66 days with no fresh food or water, and no bathroom! I have to admire those immigrants who persevered through these incredible circumstances!
And apparently 66 days was a rather short trip!! This is a more complete story of the voyage of the German organ master and school master, Gottleb Mittelberger "who left one of the small German states in May 1750 to make his way to America. He arrived at the port of Philadelphia on October 10. That is 5 months! Here is an excerpt from his journal published in 1898:
...during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of seasickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply-salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably...
...Children from one to seven years rarely survive the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water. I witnessed such misery in no less than thirty-two children in our ship, all of whom were thrown into the sea. The parents grieve all the more since their children find no resting place in the earth, but are devoured by the monsters of the sea. It is a notable fact that children who have not yet had the measles or smallpox generally get them on board the ship, and mostly die of them.More of the story can be found here:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/passage.htm
The journal also discusses the situation that many of the passengers were indentured servants, bound to work for the person who paid for their passage on the ship. Some, who didn't have the money were even "sold" when they arrived and then became indentured. And it mentions that children, especially if they had no parents who had survived the journey, were indentured until they were 21 years of age!
Leaving the homeland of your ancestors and very likely family members who you would never see again, had to be extremely difficult for anyone coming to the New World. But then to have to face these circumstances during the sea voyage, it's more than I think I could endure. And for many, then facing a long indenture to pay for that journey.
But, they did it. Hundreds of thousands of people, over the past 400 years have made that leap of faith and subjected themselves to unbelieveable hardship to give us, their descendants, a better life. I am grateful to them for making that decision and then following through and facing whatever came their way.
"Til Next Time!
#52Ancestors
Comments
Post a Comment