A new life overseas

As emigrates were leaving, as the name suggests, there was not much interest from the authorities in recording information about them, to the frustration of family historians. More information is found in the countries to which they were travelling. However, the Archives Centre does hold a good collection of journals and letters that give some insight into the emigrant experience. Most voyage experience follow roughly the same pattern - excitement and sadness at leaving, smugness at their good sea legs, terrible seasickness once out of the Mersey, then settling down into a routine broken only by food and an obsession with the weather, and back to excitement once their destination is sighted. They actually make very good reading.
Lead image: Emigration Office, Illustrated London News, 6th July 1850 (DX/287/62/5)