The parish record for Reuben Joynes’ baptism, at St Mary Magdalene, Newark, Nottinghamshire, on 7 November 1812. Image used with permission of Ancestry
In 2001, my middle daughter, Eleanor, flew off to America for a gap year in Minnesota. There she met Mike, and after returning home a year later, they pursued a transatlantic relationship for a few years, before marrying in London in 2006. The following year, I waved her off to start her new life with Mike in the Midwest, believing that she was the first of my immediate family to strike out for a life in the New World, and looking forward to adding some American grandchildren to my ever-expanding family tree (duly provided – thanks Eleanor and Mike!).
The Luddite rebellion began in Nottinghamshire around the time of Reuben’s birth… This must have brought hardship to a family whose income came from the textile industry
Little did I know about a much earlier member of our family who had gone out there to try his luck.
At that time, internet genealogy was still in its infancy, so resources were somewhat limited unless there was time to travel around the country and heft endless tomes of BMD registers, squeaky rolls of census data, or the British Newspaper Archive in Colindale. However, the advent of the online version of the BNA a few years ago opened up the door to a very sad tale of poverty, but also of recovery and a determination to improve the lot of the poor. An article in the Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser from 25 November 1842 piqued my interest about a transatlantic crossing by one of my ancestors born more than 200 years ago.