Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Emigration and Immigration

Until I started this project, I tended to get "emigrate" and "immigrate" mixed up. But no longer.

"Emigrate" means to move out of a country.

"Immigrate" means to move into a country.
The word "emigrate" came from the Latin emigrare which came from the prefix e- (a variation of ex-) which means "out of" and the migrare, "to migrate."

The word "immigrate" came from the Latin immigrare which came from the prefix in-, "into" and migrare, "to migrate."
When the Hayward family left England in 1853, they emigrated from England and immigrated to Utah. Someone who comes to the United States is an immigrant.

When Johan Wessman left Sweden in 1896, he was listed in the Swedish government's emigration records "Emigranten Populär, 1783-1951." When he arrived in New York several weeks later, he was listed in the Ellis Island immigration records.

In a genealogy program like RootsMagic, there are two possible fields for this kind of data.  (Although you can always create custom fields.) The emigration field should list the date the person left his or her home country. The immigration field should list the date he or she arrived in the United States. Here is a picture of Johan Wessman's genealogical record showing the two fields.


4 comments:

  1. What an excellent example of those two words. I've thought about them through the day, hopefully I've got them clear now. I was also happy to see the family history software I purchased last year, after sorting through a row of vendor's at a family history conference, is what you are using. That is encouraging. Thank you.

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  2. Good choice, Bessie! I had been using Reunion for the Macintosh, but needed a program I could use to collaborate with others for another project I'm working on, so on the recommendation of my parents and Ardis at Keepapitchinin, I got RootsMagic.

    To run it on the Macintosh, I had to add Parallels Desktop and Windows, but even with the added expense I'm very pleased with RootsMagic. It's much easier to use than Reunion. The report and documentation features are much more extensive and intuitive and the fact that it is compatible with New Family Search is a big bonus.

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  3. I came on this site following a picture that I googled and am hoping for some input about the Hayward family. My 4th great grandmother is a Mary Ann Hayward. Her history is complicated but we have brought to light that she was born in 1817. We think that she was born into money but it seems she married someone beneath her station and the family cut her off but first gave her a generous portion of her inheritance. She and her spouse, Frederick Walters were married and stayed in Hertforshire, Watford, England. While there, she and a couple others were baptized. Latter they migrate to America on a Mormon immigration ship. When they arrived in St. Louis they were caught up in the cholera outbreak and lost a son. They never leave St. Louis. There is so much more to the story but there seems to have been bitterness because of her membership.

    We cannot seem to trace who her parents are or where she came from. This is a long shot I know....but just wondering if anyone on this site has any ideas or information that might help us.

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  4. Hi, Patty. The Haywards here are from Deal, Kent, England, and were boat makers. "Hayward" is an occupation name, like Tanner or Smith, so it wouldn't necessarily suggest a relationship, and I can't see a Mary Ann in the family tree.

    British Mission records or missionary diaries may provide clues, particularly if you know when and where they were baptized. (Church History Library in Salt Lake or Missionary Diaries on the BYU Digital Library website.) I just checked the Millennial Star and don't see any mentions of the family.

    Otherwise, just run through all the resources listed in my guide to researching Mormon ancestors (see the link in the sidebar; it's currently listed fifth in the top articles and indexes) if you haven't done so already and then when the Church provides access to Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FindMyPast, estimated this Fall, look particularly at all the English collections, including newspaper articles, to see if you can find any further clues.

    Best wishes with your research!

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