I have a question that may be I should not ask on this link but I recall some time back there was some discussion about the Irish migration and its connection to the Germanic migration so here goes and see if I get shot. I have been researching for some time why the 19th century migrants left their homeland to migrate to Australia and the conditions under which they came here. I have established from my research that our Germanic ancestors mostly came out on contracts. The young Queensland government authorised agents to go to Northern Europe and engage families to migrate to work for settled landholders or the take up selections of land. Their passage fares were paid and they were required to work for the employer for 2,3 or 4 years during which time they repaid to the agents or the employer the amount lent to cover fares and costs of migration. Where they came to take up land selections they were given a grant of land and lent money to develop. They again were tied to the agent or government for a period of 2,3 or 4 years during which time they were expected to have began production from the land and begun paying back the loan money. I have established that there were a percentage of migrants who came not just from Northern Europe but from the British Isles and Southern Europe who paid their own passage and arrived as free settlers with no ties and who went out and made their own way around the country. I have established that the Queensland government went to the British government seeking manpower to build roads, railways, government buildings and other government service needs. My investigation suggests that the British government responded by going into the cites, and towns around England Scotland and Wales and sent out those they didnt want in England. In other words they sent us out the rebels of the upper class families, the derelicts of the communities and any other possible troublemaker. Prior to the ceasing of convict transportation we received convicts who in most instance were nothing more than the playful villainous lads around town and the rebels of the upper crust families. I have established that the British government organised for the Irish natives to migrate but what I have not established is whether their migration was arranged by agents as for the Northern Europeans or were they sent out by the British to find their own way. I have established that these Irish migrants seemed to have come out not to take up land selections but to work for settled landholders. I cannot find evidence that they were sent out to work on government projects. I do know that conditions in Ireland were beyond being despicable in the 1840s and beyond. I have been reading a lot about Irish history of late and what the British government and nobility did to the Irish people can be described as nothing short of a shameful disgrace. I have learned that in 1845 the British government passed an Irish migration act to encourage if not force the people to migrate. I remember how close the Irish and Germanic families worked and cooperated in Toowoomba and the surrounding districts on the Darling Downs. As I recall it there was always some form of sympathetic support from the Germans to the Irish and reverse. I have also learned that there has been in Queensland some bond between the Irish and Germanic people of that era. Hence I ask: 1. Can anybody tell me if agents contracted the Irish migrants, as were the Northern Europeans? 2. Does anybody dispute my conclusions given here? Albert Grulke in sunny wintry Melbourne