Question of the Week: Which of your ancestors migrated the farthest?

Question

Did your ancestors emigrate to countries far from their birthplaces? Which of them migrated the farthest?

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Answer 1

My Great Grandfather and his brother went from Saint Petersburg, Russia to Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand via several ships transferring in London, England and Wellington, New Zealand and Lyttleton, Canterbury with possibility of other stopovers. I do have to find the Book that was done about him as it will name all the ships. I have no way to accurately calculate the distance travelled but it will be big.

Answer 2

My ancestors all came from Western Europe, the proto-US or the Caribbean and all came to Eastern Canada.   The furthest was from Germany. None travelled more than 5300 Kms.  One of my children has migrated further than that and is still in Canada.

Comments

My father came from Germany through Ellis Island and my great great grand father brought over the Norwegian over in the boat called the slooper

Answer 3

My great-grandmother Elna Wilhelmina Biberg came from Sundsvall in Sweden to Porsgrunn in Norway. Google tells me that the distance is 767,2 km.

My great-great-grandfather Anders Paulsen walked on his legs from the Grytten parish in Romsdal, Norway to Stavern in Vestfold, Norway, that is 580,2 km. He was a young carpenter and probably took work wherever he came.

I guess these are petty distances compared to those who crossed the oceans.

Answer 4

My mom's grandparents brought their young families from Finland to New England in the early 1900s. Nearly all of my dad's immigrant ancestors came during the Puritain Great Migration. Since immigration, no one seems to have felt the slightest urge to wander. Let me explain how rooted we are:
My dad grew up in Westminster, Massachusetts. He had 14 ancestors who came on the Mayflower in 1620. Google gives the distance from Plymouth to Westminster as 92miles. Divided by 403 years, that is a mean distance of .23 miles, or 1214.4 feet per year - that is 98 feet shy of the 400m event that U.S.Olympian Michael Norman consistently runs in under 45 seconds.

Answer 5

West of Ireland to Queensland - quite a lot of them, in fact!

Answer 6

A 3 x Great Uncle Charles Wootton ( Wootton-465) was born in Bloxwich, Staffordshire, England, baptised on 3 April 1831, on 15 Jan 1878, he arrived in New South Wales, Australia.

Total distance: 16,985.64 km (10,554.39 mi)

In 1880/1881 he and the family were living in Otago, New Zealand

Total distance as the crow flies: 19,147.89 km (11,897.95 mi), but most likely as they would have travelled by ship the actual distance would be longer.

He died 25 October 1904 at Dunedin, Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand.

I think he and his family travelled the furthest, other family moved to Australia, some others went directly from England to New Zealand, adding the stop in New South Wales added distance.

Almost 2 years ago I was contacted thru WT by one of his descendants, she was able to provide all the family history in New Zealand including other descendant branches that eventually ended up in New Mexico, Boston, Connecticut and Illinois! Yeah WikiTree. 

And I just realised that I have not uploaded his photo to his profile, that is on today's to do list, now it's done.

.

Comments

Great photo! Glad this question gave you the incentive to upload it.

Answer 7

My maternal great grandparents, (Brehm, Dietz, Yost) and their families migrated from the Norka Colony along the Volga River in Russia to the East Coast of the United States, at total of approximately 4,600 miles. They eventually made their homes in the mid-west, mostly Nebraska. 

They were originally from Germany and were recruited by representatives of Catherine the Great. Her second, 1763 Manifesto, held many promises and was very appealing tax and war weary Europeans. Thousands accepted her offer and went to areas of Russia around the "great Volga River".

The Volga River is 2,200 miles and longest in western Europe starting in the Valdai Hills and flowing to the Caspian Sea. 

Answer 8

"I would walk 500 miles...."

The farthest would have to be the Italians in my tree seeing as that's a bit farther away than say France/Canada or England. Traveling from Naples, my four great-grandparents on my dad's side (Vincenzo Ferraiolo, Maria Tedesco,  Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione) would had to have traveled from their respective towns of San Pietro a Maida and Gesualdo to Naples, to New York and ultimately Haverhill, Massachusetts. Let's break the distance down.

From San Pietro a Maida to Naples is 359 kms (223 miles)

From Gesualdo to Naples is 104 kms (64 miles)

From Naples to New York is 4,399 miles

From New York to Haverhill, Mass is 235 miles.

So, if I add this all up. The Ferraiolos traveled a total of 4,857 miles. The Carrabs family traveled 4,698 miles.

That's a lot of traveling. Most of the travel time was taken up by crossing the Atlantic by boat. Clementina and Giuseppe only did it once and when they got to Haverhill she told him. "Never again! Are you out of your mind?!" I think more curse words were involved. Clementina didn't like traveling. Vincenzo on the other hand went back and forth several times over the course of his life once airplanes were more widely used.

It looks like the Ferraiolos traveled the farthest. But, keep in mind Vincenzo and Maria never traveled together. Maria left Italy with her kids, my grandfather and my great-aunt. So, she had to deal with two kids under ten while crossing the Atlantic. Vincenzo met her in NY and they drove to Haverhill. The rest, as they say, is history.

Answer 9

My grandfather who moved about 150 miles when he retired to the seaside at Bournemouth (England). All the rest (at least those that I've found so far) moved within a very limited area .  One line moved 9 miles between the 1550s and 1900s. It's only a handful of my ancestor's siblings who went to Australia, Canada and the USA.

Answer 10

Both of my ggp came from Ostfriesland, Germany, one, to Illinois, united states and the other to, Gage, Nebraska, united states, they migrated all over the us, and from illinois, on to, south dakota.

Answer 11

My ancestors didn't really move, maybe to the next village over.

My 7th greatgrandfather Hendrik Janzen Nedermeijer probably moved the farthest, from Münster in Germany to Woudenberg in the Netherlands, about 150 km.

Answer 12

My farthest traveling ancestor seems to be Valentyn Claes (Claes-127). He was born in Transylvania, Romania. He traveled to the Netherlands, joined the Dutch army and was stationed in New Amsterdam, where he settled down.

Answer 13

My great grand uncles, Levi and George Windsor who emigrated from England to Australia.  In the spring of 1882, Levi Windsor and his family with his younger brother, George Windsor emigrated to Australia. They arrived in Queensland Australia in May 1882 and became farmers around the town of MacKay on the east coast. This is about 13,750 miles (22,130 km) around the tip of South Africa.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Windsor-897

Answer 14

That would be my great-grandfather Albert Otto Willy Borchers Brauns, 11485 kms. from his birthplace Itzehoe (Germany) to Antofagasta (Chile). He was a merchant sailor, and I suspect he came directly from Sidney. If that's the case, it was a 12251 kms. trip.

Second place for my 4th great grand-father "Miguel" O'Carrol, 11327 kms. from Tipperary (Ireland) to Santiago (Chile). It's a Long Way to Tipperary!

Answer 15

Both sides of my deceased sister-in-law's family immigrated from northern Russia in the mid-1800's. As with their descendant, they were all jewish. Her various family lines followed their village Rabbi's to Maine in the United States for resettlement. I've buiilt her ancestry in Ancestry.com for her son's (my nephew's) review and doing so improved my admitedly amatuer education on this historical subject.

Answer 16

My maternal Great - Great grandfather came from slovakia right before world war I and had to wait until after the war for his wife to join him in the united states.

Answer 17

All 4 of my grandparents were born in New Zealand.

Most of their parents came from South West England (aka The West country), Scotland or Ireland. Of those few  great grandparents who were also born in NZ, their parents definitely travelled by ship from the UK or Ireland to NZ.

They all sailed to New Zealand on various passengers ships.

Answer 18

My ancestor, William Messer, was a convict who arrived in Sydney, Australia alone on the General Hewett in 1814. Born between 1770 and 1780, he lived in Kent with his wife Ann and their nine children. This is a distance of about 17000km as the crow flies.

Then, his youngest son (Henry) also immigrated to Sydney from Kent. It was there he met his wife, Emily Sutherland, whom he married in 1835. He died in 1841, with five children.

Answer 19

Italy to Minnesota to Montana and back to Minnesota. Stefano and Fedele (Toronto, Canada) Romito

Switzerland to Wisconsin to Minnesota to South Dakota! Joseph, Johann, and Elsbeth Stussy

Answer 20

I think I would win only if it were reversed and we named the ancestors who were born and died in the same house.