Stowaways, Greenock to Canada

[jmlivingstone]

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news ... ef=mr&lp=5

Nothing to do with Livingstone research, but an interesting article on the pitfalls that could descend on stowaways, if found on board ship on a voyage to Canada etc., presumably, all ship captains were not so heartless,

John.

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi John,

Sorry I did not see your posting until this morning. A great family story really, but how horrible that was. I bet that was not the first time that happened. Those ships were also dreadful enough for the legitimate passengers and I am sure some Captains were harsh individuals capable of such things in a moment of anger. During the famine period of the 1840's these passenger ships were referred to as Coffin ships as by the time Irish immigrants arrived at Quebec, Canada many of the passengers had either died of cholera or dysentery as results of the crowded unsanitary conditions they experience aboard these ships or died shortly after their arrival at the port at Quebec. Many were actually timber ships refitted to hold passengers and on their return from Quebec would be often loaded up with timber from Canada, pine and Oak for the trip back for ship building in Britain. My Mother's ancestor as a boy of 13 left an unhappy farm life in County Antrim, ireland in 1836 and made his to Belfast where he became a Cabin boy aboard a merchant ship that made trips to Portugal where there was Madeira wine trade with Ireland. He basically eventually worked his passage as the family account goes for at time and one day just got off the ship when it arrived in Quebec and decided to remain in Canada.

regards,

Donald

[livingston]

Hi there
Were was the farm in co antrim my livingstons were mainly the farmers in co antrim and still farming here any ideas or names of town lands etc?



yours david livingston
randalstown co antrim n/ireland

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi David,

My Mom's great-great grandfather was Robert Bryson a tenant farmer at Dobbsland Townland, Kilroot Parish a few miles from the old historic town of Carrickfergus. Robert and his father James my 4th great grandfather and other kin are buried in old Kilroot cemetery not far away from the ruins of our Bryson family fieldstone cottage on the old Dobbs family estate. Some old-timers my cousin got to know when he first visited the ruins of the old family farm said the area beside the abandoned farm house had been at one time known as Bryson's Bogg or Brysonsland, though in truth my family were always tenant farmers. I spent some time at the Archives in Belfast in 1998 and found some tithe and Griffith valuation records pertaining to my Mom's family. Robert died in 1859 and his wife died some years after that and there was no family of ours on the that farm after the early 1860's. Robert's eldest son, my ancestor ran away from the farm at the age of 13 and ended up in Canada around 1836 after working as a cabin boy aboard a merchant ship out of Belfast. Shortly after 1998 I began researching the highland Argyllshire Livingston ancestor Miles Livingston of Morvern Parish, Argyll and his interesting life after he left Scotland in June of 1812 with his second wife Janet also of a Morvern Livingston family. While my focus since I began doing my own Western Argyllshire Livingson family research and later that of other Livingston families of Argyllshire has been of course Argyllshire Livingstons,

I have been aware for some time the Livingstons that settled in Ulster in the 1600's were of different Scottish origin that of Livingstons of South western Scotland who were living there in the 1600's when they and many other Scottish families in Kirkcudbrightshire, Wigtownshire of old Galloway and those of neighbouring Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire were encouraged to settle in Ulster. Only recently however I been in touch with a descendant of a Ulster Livingston who lives in England who is part of Livingston DNA matches group that has a Canadian Livingston in it whom I sponsored in 2007. He is not a close genetic match with the Livingston whom I sponsored but they seem to be somehow connected in their results at least distantly. Others Livingstons however of Ulster Livingston ancestry part of his DNA matches group are a much closer match. Anyways Ulster research is always a challenge because the census records from the 1800's are missing and my main focus on this little mini project of mine is to see if there is any way through the same DNA test that we can eventually find Livingstons of South Western Scotland ancestry who are very close genetic match with Livingstons of Ulster ancestry. If the Scotch Irish historians are correct some of these old South Western Scottish Livingston families and some of the Ulster Livingston perhaps even yours could be related. My Ulster Livingston contact who did this familytreedna test awhile ago unfortunately is just recovering from a serious operation and while he has been in touch with me recently, he unfortunately is not feeling up to doing much family history understandably. I am hoping to eventually get Ulster Livingston researchers like him who have done the familytreendna or other Ulster Livingston researchers to take an interest and get involved in researching linking their Ulster ancestors to old Livingston families that left South Western Scotland in the 1600's for Ulster as ultimately this will be of more interest to them than to myself who is of Argyllshire highland Livingston ancestry rather than Ulster Livingston ancestry. That being said I do have much Ulster ancestry on my Mom's side of the family just not Livingston. Charles Hanna's 1902 book the Scotch Irish deals with the origins of the Scottish settlers that settled in Ulster in the 1600's and the settlement in the 1700's before the American Revolution of a large number of Ulster families to Pennsylvania and into the American South i.e.. Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia where many families today claim Scotch Irish Ulster ancestry. Because our Clan Maclea Livingstone is so orientated to Argyllshire Livingstons I am finding few people who have knowledge of the history of the Livingstons in Ireland and of the Livingston Scotch Irish connection later in America. I am hoping to eventually find more Livingtons like yourself who hopefully will be able to shed some light regarding the early family origins in Ulster and perhaps even before that in South Western Scotland which I am starting to research as a little project.

regards,

Donald