‘To lands unknown’: One family’s journey across space and time

Abstract

The British Empire’s expansion across the world often resulted in individuals or families migrating from familiar cultural surroundings to unfamiliar lands. This paper focuses on one family’s intergenerational migration beginning in County Monaghan, Ireland, with subsequent journeys to India, England, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Some of the key events that impacted these journeys were An Gorta Mór or the Great Irish Famine, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and World War. Microstudies such as this help to illuminate the effects of colonisation and imperialism on the reasons to migrate, cross-cultural relationships, issues of identity, language, and religion.