Wales Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

Welshmen began emigrating to other countries including the United States, India, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and South America as early as the 1600s. One of the earliest groups of Welsh emigrants was the John Miles congregation of Baptists who settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. The most significant early Welsh emigrants to America settled in the "Welsh Tract" of Pennsylvania. They came at the invitation of William Penn, and the first group arrived in the early 1680s. For several decades after this, many Welsh nonconformists emigrated to Pennsylvania.  

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Welsh established communities in Pennsylvania, Vermont, Ohio, and up-state New York. These early settlements became the nucleus for later migration into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. Beginning in the 1840s, many skilled iron workers and coal miners emigrated from Wales. Over 250,000 Welshmen have emigrated to America over the last 300 years.  

Movements within the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales) and also the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, to the colonies required no documents. Records were not required for free emigrants to the United States until 1776; Canada before 1865; or Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa until the twentieth century.  

== Emigration From Wales  ==

*'''Transported prisoners.''' More than 200,000 criminals were conditionally pardoned, exiled, and transported to penal colonies before 1870. Before 1775 over 50,000 prisoners were sent to America, primarily to Virginia and Maryland. From 1788 to 1869 over 160,000 prisoners were sent to Australia.Only about 2,500 of those transported to Australia were Welsh.<ref>David Peate, "Emigration" in Welsh family history: a guide to research. 2nd ed. Birmingham, England: Federation of Family History Societies (Publications) Ltd. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; the authors, 1998. (page 257)</ref><br>

*'''Latter-day Saints.''' About 1840, thousands of Welsh members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emigrated to the United States. Most settled in Utah. The website [http://http://welshmormonhistory.org/ Welsh Mormon History]has great details, pictures and journals on thousands of Welsh emigrants.

The British took South Africa from the Dutch in 1795. Few Welsh settled in South Africa until a group of 3,675 British subjects settled in eastern Cape Province in 1820. These settlers are well-documented. A memorial museum that has genealogies of their descendants is located at:  

A group of Welsh people sailed on [[The Mimosa|The Mimosa]] and founded a settlement in Patagonia, Argentina, in the nineteenth century. This settlement, known as "Y Wladfa," has been studied in considerable detail. Several books have been written about it.  

'''Assisted Emigrants Registers.''' Persons who applied for assistance to emigrate were recorded in assisted emigrants registers, which often contain name, age, occupation, residence, destination, name of sponsor, address of relative, and size of family. Records of emigrants who received assistance to emigrate from their parish or landlord can be found in parish records and estate records. See [[Wales Church Records|Wales Church Records]] and [[Wales Land and Property|Wales Land and Property]]. Those available at the Family History Library appear in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:  

'''Other Records.''' The Public Record Office has many other records that refer to emigrants. Of particular importance are the poor law union papers, which among many other things includes some records of poor relief emigration from 1834 to 1900. For information on these and other emigration records at the Public Record Office, use the Kew Lists (see [[Wales Archives and Libraries|Wales Archives and Libraries]]).  

As there are few English immigration sources, you may need to search the emigration records for your ancestor’s country of origin.

== Related Articles ==  

[[Find a Welsh Emigrant or Immigrant from Wales Record Selection Guide]]

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