Pioneers to Racine
20th November 2024
Guernsey Evening Press and Star, Monday 17 February 1913. 'GUERNSEY ISLAND SENDS MANY PIONEERS TO RACINE. ROSTER OF IMMIGRANTS SHOWS SCORES WHO CAME FROM LITTLE ISLAND. (From the Racine Daily Times.)'
Emigration
On board the Tulloch Castle to Melbourne, 1852
27th July 2015
The 1850s gold rush in Australia attracted thousand of immigrants and would-be prospectors, and Guernsey was by no means immune to gold fever. 18-year old William Francis Nicolle recorded his voyage to Melbourne in the summer of 1852 in his Journal, which was generously donated to the Library by Stephen Foote. Nicolle followed this with an account of his return from Australia in the freezing cold on board the Avon. His Journal also includes a substantial amount of family history material (Nicolle, De Garis, Lainé, Lamble &c.), as well as other accounts of later voyages made on board cargo ships. He was a carpenter by trade, and the book also includes carefully written instructions for calculations, presumably for reference purposes. Finally, his poem in memory of Nicholas de Mouilpied, who died on the voyage out, aged 22.
Prince Edward Island: the Brehauts and Joseph Avard
12th March 2015
Prince Edward Island off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland has strong links to Guernsey that are very much alive today. A question was put by a visitor to the staff in the Library, enquiring as to the reason for an emigration to the island that took place in 1806.
Off to America with Jean De Jersey, 1752
From the Archives of the Town Hospital, 1752.
November 25, 1833: A letter from America
[The Star]: The following letter, dated September 23rd, 1833, written by a young man who left this island for the United States in the spring of the year, has been handed to us for insertion by one of his friends who recently received it. We give it insertion without of course pledging our faith to the correctness of the statements which it contains:
Prince Edward Island, January 1807
From the Gazette de Guernesey, 24 January, 1807.
A February selection: desperate people
Governor Ling thinks poor children are too much of a nuisance; Anne Le Page's remedies don't work and she ends up in the Cage; an interesting proposal from France; Mrs Thomas and Mrs Langworthy have a fight.
January 1854: Off to Australia
Horrible death of a mystery man, too many islanders are going to Australia, the passengers of the brig Secret, mind your head on the lamp!
14 August 1818: A Letter from Gaspe
This letter from a Methodist preacher in Canada is taken from the Magasin Méthodiste of 1818. This French-language publication, intended primarily for Channel Island consumption, was produced at the instigation and probably the expense of the indefatigable Methodist pioneer, Jean de Queteville. The Priaulx Library may be unique in holding a complete run of the magazine, which contains original articles in French and translations of contributions from the English monthly, Methodist Magazine.
Guernsey 'Pilgrim Fathers'
From The Guernsey Free Churchman, February, 1924, and written by the Editor, the Reverend George Rabey. The Sarchet family emigrates to Ohio in 1806.