Scottish Emigration to Australia

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi everyone, There is an excellent extract of David MacMillan's book "Scotland Emigration to Australia 1815-1832" which discusses at great length emigration to Australia, but also focuses on the factors influencing emigration elsewhere from Scotland in the 19th century. Well worth reading whether or not your Livingstone ancestor ended up in Australia. Few of our Livingstone ancestors wanted to leave their beloved highlands in the 19th century, but political and ultimately economic forces ended working against them in Scotland. On a positive note, our great-great-great and great-great grandparents that left the old country, for the most part, prospered and their family flourished in their new land whether it was America, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. The extract in case you have not already seen it is at http://electricscotland.com/history/aus ... cotaus.htm. The clearances which displaced so many folks in the highlands is an interesting topic of discussion. With a few possible exceptions, I suspect most of our Livingstone ancestors like that of Doctor Livingstone's family were in difficult financial circumstances. The Doctor discusses the humble origins of his family at some length in his 1858 biography. His older brother John Livingstone emigrated in Ontario, Canada in the 1840's. Not all landlords initially used reforms in agriculture ie. sheep farming in the highlands to compell their tenants to emigrate. I know that the 5th Duke of Argyll (John Campbell) in the years between 1776 and 1806 introduced improvements and encouraged the development of local industry to benefit his tenants at Movern where my people come from and that he discouraged the emigration of his tenants during that period. Subsequent landlords were not so enlightened however. My family left the Movern/Isle of Lismore area after the 1780's for Bowmore, Isle of Islay where there was work for skilled carpenters and boatbuilders. The economic forces and the families personal financial situation were such that my ancestor Miles Livingstone, his brother and a cousin found it impossible to refuse the humanitarian Lord Selkirk's offer of settlement in British North America in 1812 as boatbuilders. regards Donald