Travel is the prompt for this week, so I decided to write about David Erskine Gray, my great-great-great-grandfather who came to the United States from Scotland. I had originally thought that he had come over in 1832, as it was written that his son William had. As I searched for any records of Erskine (as he was called) immigrating, I found the passenger list with him listed! After all these years searching!
Erskine was born in 1789 in Scotland. He married Elisabeth Wood in 1819 in Scotland. Erskine and Elisabeth Gray had five children, with only two of them living until adulthood. One of the children was my gg-grandfather, David Erskine Gray, and the other was his brother, William Gray.
According to a history, the family left Scotland, landed in New York and went to Chicago where they spent some time, then went on to Indiana.
When I found the Passenger Record, I learned that Erskine, age 42, Elizabeth, age 32, and David, age 11, left Liverpool and arrived in New York on the 23rd of February in 1837. They traveled on the ship named Emanuel with two boxes. I can't even imagine how the family could leave with only two boxes of belongings. What I found interesting is that their son, William, is not listed as a passenger on this ship. William would have been about sixteen years old in 1837.
I wonder what travel would have been like on a ship across the ocean during the winter. It must have been brutal.
The family was in Vigo County, Indiana by 1840 where David was listed with his wife and two sons, so somehow son William ended up with them. How did they even find each other back then?
So this search continues to leave me with questions, but I am thrilled with locating the Passenger List!
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