Newfoundland's Grand Banks Message Board

Hi, am wondering if anyone has an idea why so many NFLD families moved to Mass...
especially the areas of Revere, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, etc...
Even Reading, Mass.....I grew up with Flights, Pottles, Butts, Hiscocks, Foleys, and so many more.....does anyone have any info on why these families left NFLD? Was it a case of
work need or what? Would love to hear what you know as my Dad never did tell us why
his Dad (William Hayward Moore & wife Ethel Amelia (davis) moved to Revere...I know during
the Crash in 30's my Grandfather lost the home he had built because he could not come up with $200. to pay the mortgage.
He died of a stroke when he was about 72 I believe but never met him.
thanks karendavis65

Emigration from Newfoundland to Massachusetts involved the push-pull factor.
From the 1850s until Confederation in 1949 life in Newfoundland was difficult.
Boston was the "Athens" of the New World, the epitome of culture, education,
and opportunity. By 1925 there were roughly 40,000 Newfoundlanders in the
greater Boston area. They had their own newspaper, churches, and stores.

What is particularly fascinating is the impact of religion on emigration. Catholic
Newfoundlanders settled in South Boston, Gloucester, or Cambridge. However
Protestant Newfoundlanders tended to settle north of Boston in places like Chelsea,
Everett, Malden, etc...

If you visit the old cemeteries in Newburyport or Gloucester many of the headstones
say "a native of Newfoundland" or "a native of Carbonear" which is very interesting
because the emigrant's family is embracing Newfoundland as an identity rather than
merely being English or Irish in origin.

That is very helpful in understanding why they all moved....and yes I agree, most of
the ones who moved to Chelsea, Everett, Malden, etc north of Boston were Protestant.
So were the ones in Reading, Ma...In fact Rev. Snook was the minister of the Methodist
Church in Reading when I was 8 yrs old.
Our family later became Jehovah's Witnesses and although I have tried to find out if any
other of my relatives ever did, I have not been able to.
Thank you so much for your help.

My great-grandparents, Fred Martin & Marie Earle, also settled in Wellesley MA (they were protestants). Marie's sister, Susie (Susannah) and brother Abram went to New York.

_________________
Amy from New Hampshire

My Grandparents were all born around 1900, they and their siblings all stayed in NFLD, however family members from earlier generations must have gone to Boston as well. They referred to the area as 'the Boston states'. My mother told me about people receiving "barrels from Boston". Apparently those who went there, regularly sent back home clothing and other necessities using wooden barrels as shipping containers. The contents were shared with whoever needed them or to whom ever they fit. Eileen

My great-grandparents, Edgar and Kathleen BAKER emigrated in 1922. They came from Harry's Harbor, NDB, where he was a merchant marine, and settled in Quincy, MA. He became a very successful builder, constructing hundreds of houses in the Quincy/Braintree area. I believe he was Methodist, while she was C of E.

Phen,
Are there any relatives still living in that area and doing consturction still? I found three Baker family
construction businesses in the area....Quincy, Foxboro areas....maybe they are lost descendants??

Eileen,
It's nice to know that the families sent back stuff for their members back home ....that was a difficult
time I'm sure and they must have appreciated it greatly...

In the case of Western Newfoundland there were a great many connections in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the herring industry. Herring was caught, salted and barreled here and then sent to 'the Boston States'. In my own family my great-great grandparents had 13 children and to prevent any family disaster sent three of their children to the states (Glouchester area) with a departing schooner captain in the late fall (1870's) to be raised and cared for. So, to answer your question, they sometimes moved there because of pending starvation. Actually, my father told me that side of my family (the 'states' people) stayed in touch with our family here in Newfoundland up until the second world war.
Hope that helps to answer your question from a Western Newfoundland perspective.
Cheers
Greg Mitchell

I don't believe there are any Baker relatives still building in that area. I believe my grandfather, Reginald Baker was the only son that worked for Edgar in the company. He went to work for his father after returning from the war, dying at age 35 in 1958.

Phen,
Okay, sorry....was hoping I had found you some distant relatives! Sorry your Grandfather passed
away so young.

Thank you very much. I hope to visit Harry's Harbor soon. I actually live in Hull, Mass. which is just a few miles from Quincy.

Starvation probably was a reason why many moved away. I hesitated to mention this before because I thought that maybe the people in my little area of NFLD weren't doing something right. While going through the death registers, I noticed that many young children had died of "marasmus". I'd never heard of that so I looked it up, then cried. It means malnutrition and/or starvation usually ending in death. Often occurring in third world countries. Can you imagine the horror of losing a child that way, no wonder so many left. Eileen

Thank you Eileen. So, now I have a technical name for why my great-great grandparents parted with three of their children in the late nineteenth century. It was the threat of 'marasmus'. I, too, cannot imagine the trauma of parting with your children. We, today, are so lucky!
Cheers
Greg

Hi All - This is absolutely fascinating information that I was unaware of. My husband's family, Shaws, moved to Southie from Little Heart's Ease (Trinity Bay area). I'm actually in Weymouth, MA, one town over from Quincy. This site is so robust, friendly and informational! I'd love to visit Newfoundland soon!

I grew up in Foxboro and knew many families with Nfld roots: two families of Pottles, Antles, Gushues, Lynches, Parsons. The Foxboro Bakers, however, are not from Nfld, as far as I know. Now I am married to a Newfoundlander, and have inlaws (Crockers) in the Weymouth area and Parsons north of Boston.

The "Boston barrels" were oak barrels used to ship salt cod to market in Boston. Once unloaded, they were washed an used to send goods back to Newfoundland. The Old Loft Restaurant in Woody Point has transformed some of these barrels into chairs.

There are some things written about this that can be found with an internet search.

Personally, I have surmised that my Newfie relatives came as a group from their hometowns in Wexford and Waterford in the late 1700s and early 1800s and established themselves in Renews, Fermeuse, and Cape Broyle. (They came for the rapidly growing fishing industry.) Then many moved again as a group, over a short period of time from 1880 to 1900, to Maynard, Massachusetts to work in the Assabet textile mill. It is clear that Newfoundland was experiencing very difficult economic times by the end of the 19th century and I'm sure they were desperate to find better opportunities.

At the same time, the "Boston States" (as Massachusetts was sometimes called) was at the peak of the industrial revolution and was home to thriving mills that required workers. I suspect that the native Irish who were arriving at the same time direct from Ireland must have contributed to a feeling of familiarity for the Newfies. If one or two native Newfoundlanders traveled to Massachusetts and started working in the mill, they would then let their relatives know that there was opportunity to be had. Remember that many of the mills also supplied housing to their workers (for a price of course) but it enabled them to live together as a community, including aging parents and young children. Hence the obvious, albeit painful, move.

I often wonder what it was like for these families used to living off the land and the sea to then make their living holed up in factories 8, 10, 12 hours a day. It must have been quite a difficult adjustment.

I also wonder how they paid for their transportation to Massachusetts and how it was accomplished. My research runs a bit dry here as I can find some instances of relatives taking boats from St. Johns NL to Halifax NS. But then how did they get to Maynard? I found one instance of a border crossing from Canada to Vermont. Has anyone had much luck with this?

Patty (KaneDaughter 2)
Families researching: Kane, Duggan, Walsh, Hearn

There are passenger lists on this site for both ships and trains. Many went by ship directly to Boston while others went by train to Port aux Basque then by boat to another train, finally crossing at Vanceboro, Maine. I too have wondered where they got the money for passage. I know in the late 1930's when my grandfather worked in the mines on Bell Island he got paid $17.00 a week. Out of that he had to pay board and for passage back and forth. Before that he and my grandmother along my father and my infant uncle participated in the Markland Experiment, they received food and the use of housing in exchange for working the land. My grandmother often said that she went to Markland with 9 cents in her pocket and that's what she came home with. Somehow they survived. Eileen

Two of my gg-uncle's daughters worked as domestics in Lynn and Everett. I think what it comes down to is that Boston is the closest big metropolis that still has some of that Atlantic maritime culture and was accessible by sea. I've had other relatives mention that folks would go down for work and come back in the summers, but eventually some just stayed, probably not too different from how their ancestors settled Newfoundland itself, just the inverse.

Newfoundland people do the same thing even now. The places they go for work has changed over the years but many still go away and come back seasonally. Some to Labrador or Ontario, in more recent years to Alberta or British Columbia. Two years ago, on my way home for a visit, I sat next to a man who was on his way home from the Middle east, Saudi Arabia I think. He would work there for 3 months then come home for a month. I love Newfoundland but I don't think I could handle the 36 hour commute each way. I even hated the year my husband spent commuting monthly from Ontario, which was why we moved. I often regret that decision.

In the case of my grandmother's family the Kinsellas they left to work in the textile mills of Lawrence. A textile mill representative went to NL to attract workers to expand their worker population. My family relocated between 1899 - 1901. My grandmother was the only one of their large family who did not move to "The Boston States". My great grandparents with 8 adult children settled in Lawrence then expanded out. My grand parents were well off in NL with their schooner business and decided to stay. Eventually all the children including my dad, Eric Hartigan left for MA.

There is some really interesting information on this site: immigrationtoamerica.org

then click Canada.

I had wondered about the State of Washington also as I saw so many familiar names once I started doing research in Newfoundland. I expect it was the fishing industry and logging plus the gold rush in Alaska that brought some in the later 1800's This was a good question.

Linda

This is a wonderful thread! I found many in my family who came to the Boston area and while some stayed, others appear to have made the trip a few times. Interesting to find family in Bay Roberts in the 1921 census, in Cambridge, MA in the 1930 census and back in Bay Roberts in the 1935 census. It would appear that many of my family were fortunate in that they don't appear to have gone from a fishing and farming life to work in the mills and factories. They may still have worked for the mills and factories but many of them were ship builders who worked as carpenters in the US.

Some came straight into Boston, others via Vanceboro and still others via Nova Scotia. Passenger lists and border crossings have been one of my most useful genealogical resources! I've solved some brick wall puzzles using them and have analyzed not just my known relations but others on the same ship to discover relationships that might not otherwise have been found.

I was so glad to hear about those in the Boston area who proudly identified their Nfld heritage! One of my first obstacles was the fact that my grandmother who came to NY from Nfld in 1923 (and then settled in NJ) always identified herself as English and the family always spoke about being from Canada. My grandmother's sister had moved to BC and well have claimed her Nfld roots more proudly but clearly the time my grandmother and even my mother lived in Nfld was prior to confederation.

My family certainly has more than its fair share of oddballs, but perhaps I'm the oddest of the bunch! Although I'm back in NJ (for the sake of work, etc.), I'm the one who became enamored with the Boston and Maine coastal areas and dream of one day being able to visit my ancestral home in Newfoundland - so proud of my heritage there.