A Hundred Years

My great, great grandmother probably came out from Ireland in the 1860's to settle in Quebec on the Ottawa River. Knowing her background, she probably travelled as a steerage passenger.

The "steerage",or between-deck, often shortened to "tween-deck", was originally the deck immediately below the main deck of a sailing ship. (Norw: Mellomdekk or Mellemdekk)

In the early days of emigration the ships used to convey the emigrants were originally built for carrying cargo. In reality the passengers were placed in the cargo hold. Temporary partitions were usually erected and used for the steerage accommodation. To get down to the between-deck the passengers often had to use ladders, and the passageway down between the hatches could be both narrow and steep. The manner in which the ships were equipped could vary since there were no set standards for this. It was necessary that the furnishings could be easily removed, and not cost more than absolutely necessary. As soon as the ships had set the passengers on land, the furnishings were discarded and the ship prepared for return cargo to Europe On the picture above you can see examples on how many of the sailing ships would be equipped.

After reading the book, Voyages of Hope, which describes the terrible conditions that people endured while traveling steerage class at that time, I have begun to wonder about her. She would have been a young lady. I don't know if she married before she left Ireland or shortly after she arrived in Canada. I do know that she was Irish Catholic and like many of her countrymen, she chose to settle in French Catholic Quebec rather than English Protestant Ontario. She probably would have sailed to Quebec City and then taken a smaller boat up to the Ottawa Valley.

Her voyage would have been much shorter - closer to one month as opposed to the two months or more that it took to get to British Columbia - but conditions would not have been much better. Knowing the fastidiousness that seems to be a trait of many people on that side of the family, I can only image how she could have endured such conditions.

A hundred years later, in the 1960's, I was coming of age in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in much different circumstances. From the perspective of 2010, fifty years later, I am wondering what the 2060's will bring.