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July 30, 2016

Meme: Our Immigrant Ancestors - Thomas King of Arkell Ontario

There is a lot of discussion about immigration in America right now. Tempers have flared, and different groups hold various strong opinions. There is also Brexit, where immigration was a large focus of the recent vote which resulted in the U.K. leaving the E.U.

I've been following this for several months and it occurs to me that those of us in Canada, America, and Australia have immigrant ancestors. Have you researched yours? Do you know who they were, why they came to your country and when? Do you know how they fared once settled in their new land? Were they welcomed? Were they shunned? Was their discrimination based on their religion or ethnic origin? These are all questions that are important, and interesting to discover. With that in mind, I'm the dedicating Saturdays (as many as needed) as the day to join me in discussing your immigrant ancestors.

You will be able to read any you are interested in by using the keyword Immigrant Ancestors. I'm going to share each week what I know of my immigrant ancestors to North America (whether that is USA or Canada)

One of my more recent immigrant ancestors was Thomas King. Thomas, his wife Harriet, their son David and Thomas' brother Lewis King left Suffolk England circa 1831 for North America.

Lewis and Thomas were born in Wenhaston, Suffolk England. In 1817 the brothers married and began raising their families but in 1831 they decided to settle in what was then the wilderness of Upper Canada (present day Ontario). Joining a small group of Englishmen, they sailed to New York and then crossed into Canada. Once in Upper Canada (now called Ontario) they established a new settlement called Arkell, named after the leader of the group. Descendants of the two pioneer brothers settled mainly in Michigan, Ontario, Australia, and Alberta.

A book on the family is available  from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, or CreateSpace  
8.5x11. 
200 pages
Full Color on White paper 

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