The Immigrants

From the mid 1700's to the early 1900's there was a mass exodus of people from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901, around fifteen million people emigrated to America, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The reasons they left the country of their birth were many and varied. There was high unemployment in the working classes due to the Industrial Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the Enclosure...
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From the mid 1700's to the early 1900's there was a mass exodus of people from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901, around fifteen million people emigrated to America, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The reasons they left the country of their birth were many and varied. There was high unemployment in the working classes due to the Industrial Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the Enclosure Movement and the Land Clearances. The potato famines in Ireland and Scotland caused starvation and death, prompting a mass exodus from those areas. This story follows the lives of three families who immigrated to South Australia in the 1850's. Each family originated in different parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and travelled separately to South Australia, spanning a four-year period, unaware that their future lives would be forever joined. The Speck families, brick-makers from Cambridgeshire, sailed from Liverpool in October 1852, the Stacey family, willow-workers from Wiltshire, sailed from Southampton in January 1854 and the Murphy family, farmers from Kilkenny, sailed from Plymouth in November 1855. The journey, over the seas, was hazardous and life in the early years of South Australia took its toll on people as they tried to create better lives for themselves and their families in the new colony. By the end of 1888 the three families were joined into one extended family living in the mid-north of South Australia. More births, deaths and marriages followed as the families grew and were subjected to droughts, floods, a world war and an economic depression. All of these people left a memory legacy that should not be forgotten.