"This collection of essays represents a selection of the papers presented at the 1998 Migration conference at the Centre of Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh."--Acknowledgements.

Ethnic associations were once vibrant features of societies, such as the United States and Canada, which attracted large numbers of immigrants. While the transplanted cultural lives of the Irish, Scots and continental Europeans have received much attention, the English are far less widely explored. It is assumed the English were not an ethnic community, that they lacked the alienating experiences associated with immigration and thus possessed few elements of diasporas. This deeply researched new book questions this assumption. It shows that English associations once were widespread, taking hold in colonial America, spreading to Canada and then encompassing all of the empire. Celebrating saints days, expressing pride in the monarch and national heroes, providing charity to the national poor, and forging mutual aid societies mutual, were all features of English life overseas. In fact, the English simply resembled other immigrant groups too much to be dismissed as the unproblematic, invisible immigrants.

Portrait of an English Migration recounts the history of those who left North Yorkshire for North America between the eighteenth century and the early twentieth century. Focusing on individual stories of migrants and their families, this book provides many personal glimpses of the migration experience of those who left England's largest county to build new lives in the United States and Canada. Exploring the local history, geography, and cultures of Yorkshire and the key places of settlement in North America, William Van Vugt deepens our understanding of the historic migration process: how local conditions and access to information influenced migration decisions, the role of local networks in migration patterns, and the significance of family connections, religious identities, and land ownership to the migrants themselves. He considers the extent to which English migrants shaped regional culture and contributed to economic development, addressing ongoing questions about identity and what it meant to be English in North America. Full of first-person accounts and stories from migrants themselves, Portrait of an English Migration is both a sweeping history of two centuries of migration and an intimate look at the lives of generations of Yorkshire people who crossed the ocean to make a new home.

Canada and the British Empire traces the evolution of Canada, placing it within the wider context of British imperial history. Beginning with a broad chronological narrative, the volume surveys the country's history from the foundation of the first British bases in Canada in the early seventeenth century, until the patriation of the Canadian constitution in 1982. Historians approach the subject thematically, analysing subjects such as British migration to Canada, the role played by gender in the construction of imperial identities, and the economic relationship between Canada and Britain. Other important chapters examine the history of Newfoundland, the history and legacy of imperial law, and the attitudes of French Canadians and Canada's aboriginal peoples to the imperial relationship. The overall focus of the book is on emphasising the part that Canada played in the British Empire, and on understanding the Canadian response towards imperialism. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, it is essential reading for anyone interested either in the history of Canada or in the history of the British Empire.

The essays in this volume have been written by leading experts in their respective fields and bring together established scholars with a new generation of migration and transnational historians. Their work weaves together the ‘new’ imperial and the ‘new’ migration histories, and is essential reading for scholars and students interested in the interplay of migration within and between the local, regional, imperial, and transnational arenas. Furthermore, these essays set an important analytical benchmark for more integrated and comparative analyses of the range of migratory processes – free and coerced – which together impacted on the dynamics of power, forms of cultural circulation and making of ethnicities across a British imperial world.

"This new, expanded edition of Irish Migrants in the Canadas traces the genealogies, movements, landholding strategies, and economic lives of 775 families of Irish immigrants who came to Canada between 1815 and 1855. This study has important implications for our understanding of nineteenth-century society in Ireland, Canada, and the United States."--Jacket.

The first in a series of three titles on The English in Canada, this book focuses on factors that brought the English to Canada, tracing the English arrivals to the various settlements. Drawing on wide-raging documentary resources, this book is essential reading for individuals wishing to trace English and Canadian family links.

Emigrant Worlds and Transatlantic Communities gives voice to the Irish, Scottish, English, and Welsh women and men who negotiated the complex and often dangerous world of emigration between 1815 and 1845. Using "information wanted" notices that appeared in colonial newspapers as well as emigrants' own accounts, Errington illustrates that emigration was a family affair. Individuals made their decisions within a matrix of kin and community - their experiences shaped by their identities as husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings and cousins. The Atlantic crossing divided families, but it was also the means of reuniting kin and rebuilding old communities. Emigration created its own unique world - a world whose inhabitants remained well aware of the transatlantic community that provided them with a continuing sense of identity, home, and family.

Lucille H. Campey’s acclaimed, groundbreaking series on English immigration to Canada is finally available in a collected volume with this complete, three-book edition. A must for genealogists and history lovers interested in the tremendous waves of English immigration to Canada, whose story has never been told in its full depth and detail until now. Planters, Paupers, and Pioneers: English Settlers in Atlantic Canada The first-ever comprehensive book written on early English immigration to Canada, Planters, Paupers, and Pioneers focuses on the factors that brought the English to Atlantic Canada. It traces English arrivals to their various settlements in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, and considers their reasons for leaving their homeland. Who were they? When did they arrive? Were they successful? And what was their lasting impact? Drawing on wide-raging documentary resources, this book is essential reading for individuals wishing to trace English and Canadian family links. Seeking a Better Future: The English Pioneers of Ontario and Quebec The exodus from England that gathered pace during the 19th century accounted for the greatest part of the total emigration from Britain to Canada. And yet, while copious emigration studies have been undertaken on the Scots and the Irish, very little has been written about the English in Canada. Drawing on wide-ranging data collected from English record offices and Canadian archives, Seeking a Better Future considers why people left England and traces their destinations in Ontario and Quebec. Challenging the widely held assumption that emigration was primarily a flight from poverty, Campey reveals how the ambitious and resourceful English were strongly attracted by the greater freedoms and better livelihoods that could be achieved by relocating to Canada’s central provinces. Ignored but not Forgotten: Canada’s English Immigrants The great exodus from England to Canada peaked in the early 20th century, and although they were widely ignored in the past as an immigrant group, the English are now being given the attention they deserve. Drawing on wide-ranging documentary and statistical sources, Ignored but not Forgotten traces this major population movement on a region-by-region basis. Campey reveals the outstanding contributions by English immigrants to Canada’s settlement and development, and challenges the assumption that English Canadians were a privileged elite. In fact, most came from humble backgrounds. The book is essential reading for genealogists and general readers interested in why the English immigrated to Canada and the great scope of their achievements. What critics are saying "Campey’s chapters are well-written and hold the readers attention." — GenealogyMagazine.com "A major addition to the literature for those looking for insight into their pioneer immigrant ancestor experience." — Anglo-Celtic Connections "[Lucille Campey] has distilled a copious amount of research.... informative and engaging." — The British Columbia Genealogist

People from the British and Irish Isles have, for centuries, migrated to all corners of the globe.Wherever they went, the English, Irish, Scots, Welsh, and and even sub-national, supra-regional groups like the Cornish, co-mingled, blended and blurred. Yet while they gradually integrated into new lives in far-flung places, British and Irish Isle emigrants often maintained elements of their distinctive national cultures, which is an important foundation of diasporas. Within this wider context, this volume seeks to explore the nature and characteristics of the British and Irish diasporas, stressing their varying origins and evolution, the developing attachments to them, and the differences in each nation’s recognition of their own diaspora. The volume thus offers the first integrated study of the formation of diasporas from the islands of Ireland and Britain, with a particular view to scrutinizing the similarities, differences, tensions and possibilities of this approach.