Question of the Week: Which of your ancestors migrated the farthest? [closed]

Question

Which of your ancestors migrated the farthest? 

Please tell us with an answer below. You could also answer on Facebook or upload the question image to any social media site. If you share it you may get family members talking.

Answer 1

My great grand mother Rose Carmichael was born in Antrim, Ireland on 26 July 1845. She married my great grand father in Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand on 31 July 1867. Quite how she got to New Zealand I have not found, although it appears she travelled with her brother Thomas, who returned to Ireland to marry his childhood sweet heart (??) Mary Ann Snoddy, on 1 March 1877.

Answer 2

The ancestor that I currently know of that migrated the farthest is my paternal great grandfather, Elias Buch.

He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in January of 1845 and in 1894 had migrated to southwest Louisiana.

Answer 3

I feel like it sure be farther back, but, in truth, it's probably my mother.  From eastern Germany/Poland to western Germany, to Santiago, Chile to Chicago, Illinois and then around the United States and the United Kingdom.

Answer 4

My direct ancestors have - as far as I know so far - not migrated very far. Some from Mecklenburg to Schleswig-Holstein, others from Thuringia (Schmalkalden) over the Harz to the Prignitz in Brandenburg. Then some from Berlin to Münsterland in North Rhine-Westphalia due to the war. But all within today's Germany.

Answer 5

My 3 x great grandparents migrated from Kent, England to New South Wales, and then for some reason hopped over to South America (possibly to join a utopian cult). After three of their kids were born in the Americas, they headed back to New South Wales.

Comments

Your lot sound like my great-grandfather who left Sweden and travelled to America via England, then from the US to Australia, then to various parts up and down the east coast (from Melbourne in the south, to Townsville in the north), and some parts a wee way west.  As best I can determine, his basic legs were 1,410.2 miles, 3,308.52 miles, 9,929 miles (across the Pacific), 1,286.2 miles - making for a total of 15,933.92 miles (about 25643.16 kms) not counting going south to Melbourne and back up north a few times.

But, you know, we keep getting told that our ancestors "didn't travel far from where they were born".  Yep.  Uh huh.  

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Were they Hofer's? Just posted about my great grandparents' 20 year stay in Paraguay for the Society of Brothers which the family has on and off described as a cult, haha.

Answer 6

It's probably my third great grandfather, Johannes Schlenker https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Schlenker-218 , From Schwenningen, in Wurttenburg, Germany.

Comments

to where?

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To York, York County, Canada West, Now Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Answer 7

All of my English, Scottish and Irish ancestors who sailed to New Zealand!!!  Halfway around the planet!!!

Most of them were my great grandparents (since all 4 of my grandparents were born in NZ), although some were my 2x gt grandparents.

Comments

Bit like me... although no Scots & Irish... throw in an Azorean Portuguese though, who was a whaler and jumped ship in the Bay of Islands (as many did).  Then there's the two convicts sent to Van Diemans' Land (both from London). The male became a sealer and whaler too, in and around NZ waters.  Then there's the one in the Admiralty who came here firstly during the Maori Land Wars, returned to England and came back again as crew on a merchant ship.  Add in two soldiers in the British Army... one arrived here (again during the Maori Land Wars) via a tour of duty in Australia, and the other arrived directly in Van Diemans' Land and got left behind in hospital when the regiment left for India.

Literally, as the crow files... in a single one trip... we Kiwis would win hands down, were this a competition.  "To The Uttermost Ends of the Earth".

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I don't remember which genealogy show talked about a woman who went from the UK to NZ, didn't like it so she left her family there and went back to UK and married again.

Answer 8

That's easy: my father snuck across the Hungarian border into Austria (on foot, in the snow) on his 20th birthday, January 16, 1957, arrived at Idlewild, New York (the future JFK airport) that July, got a job sometime that autumn at his grandfather's little sister's son-in-law's restaurant in Carlsbad, California, and was naturalized in Los Angeles in 1962. Mr. Google tells me that the distance between Budapest and Los Angeles is nearly 10,000 kilometers, or roughly 6200 miles, as the crow flies.

Answer 9

My 2nd great grandmother (Barbara) was born in Russia (Nov 1848) and found her way to Nebraska, USA.  Her husband was about 16 years older and had passed away when he was 57.  Barbara took her own life when she was 46 years old.

Answer 10

On the 1930 death certificate of my great grandfather Thomas Luther Lovelace, it says that his mother Elizabeth Metzler came from Holland to Pennsylvania. Metzler being a German last name, her family likely came from Germany. Elizabeth, my second great grandmother, is my closest ancestor that traveled the farthest.

Answer 11

My great grandparents, Antoino and Grazia Raia made the journey to Brooklyn, New York USA from Menfi, Agrigento, Sicilia, Italy in 1890. 

Further back there are ancestors who started in Switzerland and eventually ended up in Georgia, USA. 

Answer 12

My Italian great-grandparents traveled over four thousand miles (6437 kilometers) to go from Italy to Haverhill, Mass. On occasions, my great-grandfather Vincenzo and others would go back for events such as weddings.

Answer 13

I have a small number of ancestors who came from Wallonie to the mid-Swedish iron districts in the mid-1600s; about 1500 kilometers. Another small bunch from Sachsen in the mid-1700s, a little shorter.

On the other hand, the branch of my paternal grandfather mostly stayed within a few kilometers from where they were born for generations and generations - a couple of enterprising families moved as much as 20-25 kilometers.

Answer 14

My Dad's first cousin Alan Christopher Griffith emigrated from Pontypridd, Monmouthshire, Wales to New South Wales in 1968. Olivia Mary Page another of my dad's cousins emigrated from Wiltshire, England to Christchurch, New Zealand in 1957. I'm not sure how much difference there is in distance.

If we are talking about direct ancestors that would be my parents, who emigrated with 6 children under the age of 13 from Birmingham, England to Oakville, Ontario in 1966.

Edit: Distances are from Pontypridd, Monmouthshire, Wales to New South Wales 10,661 miles and from Devises, Wiltshire, England to Christchurch, New Zealand 11,834 miles, so the Page family travelled further.

Answer 15

It's a toss up among 5G Grandfather Alexander Carswell who left County Antrim, Ireland for the Georgia Colonies in 1772.  

3G Grandfather Robert Purdy who also departed from Antrim circa 1824 bound for St. John New Brunwick in what is now Canada.  

G Grandfather John Hogan was born in Cork, Ireland, circa 1863 and, after a tour with the Royal Navy sailing between Brisbane, Australia and Hong Kong, immigrated to Boston, MA.

Answer 16

My mother:125,3 km from Overasselt, Gelderland the Netherlands to Borne, Overijssel, the Netherlands

Answer 17

My great grandfather!, He was born in Lithuania, moved to Paris, married and moved to Argentina, didn't like it and finally moved to Chile

Answer 18

My husbands family arrived here from Wurtenberg Germany with 14 children. Settled in Wisconsin and Crete Nebraska and 1 son moved to Albuquerque NM when he came of age!

Comments

I work on German emigration to Wisconsin. What was their surname?

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The family name was Neher. Johannes George Neher and his wife was Josepha Ottilia Graff. I have  a great deal of information on most of the siblings that arrived here but non on the parents, once they arrived in our country.

My husband’s grandfather ( George Kaspar Neher)  and his great grandfather ( Melchior Neher) were quite the entrepreneurs, but not much information on Johannes George and his generation.

Thank you. Rita W Neher

Answer 19

My 2nd great grandmother, Hilda Caroline Larson was born in Vadsø, Finnmark, Norway; Finnmark is located at the top bit of Norway that stretches over Finland north of the Artic Circle. The family story goes her father went to California around the time she was born leaving her mother alone with two small children and a newborn, when her father had sent for the rest of the family to come her mother packed up everything and went with three small children from Vadsø to England to get a boat across the Atlantic to New York and then a train across the country to the west coast. Their boat unfortunately collided with another ship and was diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were then put on a train to Vancouver, after arriving in Vancouver after a long journey Hilda’s mother found that they had missed the connecting train to California. She didn’t speak any English and had very little money left. By complete chance a Finnish man found them on the street and decided to help them, he fed them, helped put them on a train to San Francisco and sent a letter ahead to Hilda’s father to meet them there. The family ended up settling in Oregon after a few years in California; Clatskanie, Oregon is approximately 7000 Km from Vadsø so I do believe they are my family members to migrate the furthest and to have the most complicated journey to get there as well.

Answer 20

My mother immigrated from Alexandria, Egypt to New Jersey around 1996. Her brother also immigrated, from Alexandria to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as her mother Samira Loutfy Demian from Alexandria to New Jersey around 2016.

Comments

My Klein (Cline) ancestors were Hessian soldiers who came here to join Washington for the French and Indian War and stayed with the Continental Army for the Revolution. My great great uncle Christian William Cline travelled to Kern County CA from Madison County OH on foot, horse and train. My son and I both travelled from Atlantic to Pacific by land. My Father travelled by troop train to California from OH and then by ship to Japan before the 2nd World War ended.