If ye will persist in Emigration...

With so much talk on the tv and in the newspapers about the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I wondered what the reaction was like in Orkney. The first report of the disaster appeared in the Orcadian on the 20th April 1912 on the front page. Quite small and unassuming in the bottom right hand corner.

By the following week the news had spread and the ministers from the churches aired their views from the pulpits.

The Rev. John Pitcairn from St Magnus Cathedral said:

The Rev. George Millar from the Paterson U P Church said:

And the Rev. J Christie from the North U.F Church compared the death toll with the population of Stromness:

Ironically in the papers at the same time many adverts still appeared enticing people away from Orkney with offers of work in a new land, such as this one which looks to us now like a scene from a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood film:

And even on the same pages as news of the disaster were adverts like this one:

Many local shops capitalised on the trend of emigration with adverts like these:

I'd really like to know what "Dudds and Spracks" and "Catchy Boots" were.

By the following week more information was reported about the sinking and the heroism of some of the passengers:

And the suffering of the survivors:

And this final review in the Orcadian on 27th April 1912:

"You're despicable Roo!*"

SUDDENLY YOU'RE SEEING ME...

JUST THE WAY I AM!

SUDDENLY YOU'RE HEARING ME,

SO I'M TALKING JUST AS FAST AS I CAN, TO YOU!

SUUUUDENLYYYY, EVERY PART OF ME,

NEEDS TO KNOW EVERY PART OF YOU!

Happy Australia day everyone! You can celebrate this day by popping down to the Orkney Archive for a browse through our collection of letters, articles and family trees relating to the many Orcadians who emigrated to Australia in search of gold, land or simply a new way of life.

Adverts appeared in the Orcadians and Orkney Heralds from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century offering land and jobs to healthy, hard-working young men. A little while after these initial adverts, others appeared looking for healthy, young and single women to go out. Ewww. Very few Scots had been sent as prisoners during the initial settlement of New South Wales and Van Diemen's land but 'free settlers' were attracted to convict-refusing South Australia with its cheap land and subsidised passage.

Each year we receive visits and letters from descendants of these adventuring Orcadians and they often leave family trees and information with us to complete the story.

*see here

Letters Home

Our popular exhibition 'Letters Home: Emigration Stories From the Isles' which we first staged in January to coincide with the beginning of the year of Homecoming Scotland is now up again until St Andrews day.

It is a selection of letters, newspaper articles and documents that relate to the many Orcadians who left these Isles in search of a better life. Below is an extract from Orkney Archive reference D31/21/1/9, a letter from James Flett to his brother in Orkney from Fort Norman, Canada and dated 20th February 1880:

" I wish very much to see you all once more and if god spares us a few years hence I hope I will. When I come home I wish the income of my money to support us. I don’t think of beginning any branch of business now in my old days if I can do without it. I have been a long time in this part of the world when I come home I wish to be able to support myself and family without help from any one. I find your letter very kind you say you would give me any comadatian as far as you could in the House line till I got time to look about me – very kind indeed thank you. It gives me much pleasure to hear you are prospering and getting on well in the world long may you continue that way. You say my sister is staid (?)-at many people that may when they get old they get staid if they are living well. My own old ladie is getting pretty staid – the (?) is Peter I find myself quite comfortable in this part of the world with my wife and two children – still I long to see my old countrey and my friends. "

The theme of emigration just being a temporary measure in order to make some money is quite common in the letters that were sent home to Orkney. Many correspondents talk about coming home and the people they hope to see when they do. Perhaps this explains the great enthusiasm of our many international visitors. The descendants of emigrants, however many generations later, still see Orkney as home.

29th April 2009 - Emigration

We have had a Phd student in this week investigating the movement of people between Orkney and Otago, New Zealand. We have been kept busy producing family histories, memoirs and letters from the 19th century as well as tickets for passage and newspaper adverts enticing people to the New World.