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Subject: How best to go from Aberdeen to Canada in 1835?
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 15:40:01 +0200


Based on a mention in the book by John Connon titled "The Early History of
Elora (Ontario) and Vicinity" of the arrival in Winterbourne, Ontario in
mid-July 1835 of a Mr. Smith (seedsman), which I am pretty sure is referring
to my great great grandfather James Smith (seedsman) who left Aberdeen for
Canada in either 1835 or 1836, I quickly jumped to a lot of conclusions i.e.
that he was among a party from Aberdeen described in the book as having left
on the 3rd of April aboard the ship "Brilliant" and which arrived (I have
since found out) in New York on the 30th of May. Thanks to the diligence of
the record keepers in New York, whose work has been microfilmed, I now know
my gggf was NOT on board the "Brilliant" as I had hoped.

I have some questions (which I fear have already been asked countless
times), but please bear with me:

For someone (let's assume a family of six - two adults aged 60 and 50, i.e.
they would require some comfort, plus four children aged from 16-25),
wanting to make the voyage from Aberdeen to Ontario in 1835 and to start a
new life in Canada, i.e. most likely wanting to take along some furniture,
certainly a fair amount of clothing, as well as some kitchenware, and, in my
case, wanting to start a nursery business in Canada, so let's throw in some
young fruit trees for good measure:

1. What were the main possibilities, i.e. routes taken, (with all of that
baggage, would it be feasible to go, say by rail to Glasgow, to shorten the
journey?) and the pros and cons of each?

2. For ships leaving Aberdeen would there be a record at least of their
sailing in a local newspaper, even if there would be no record of who was on
board?

A pointer to a good book on the topic would also be much appreciated.

Peter Smith
Vienna, Austria

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