HI ELIZABETH,    WHERE did your ancestors go, who left Wiltshire in the 1840s?? Did they happen to go Australia or Newfoundland, where my distant cousins' ancestors went??    Seems weird that my branch left probably about 3 or 4 GENERATIONS EARLIER than theirs did!     Yes, could have been for 'free land' ... can you imagine hearing there is Free Land way far away, and just hopping on a boat and going there hoping to get some??? They sure were adventuresome!!!       Wish they'd left journals for us to better know them!!       Thanks for writing!           T I N A  KEENE PEDDIE/CALIF.************************************************** --- On Thu, 12/2/10, Eliz Hanebury <elizhgene@gmail.com> wrote: From: Eliz Hanebury <elizhgene@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [ENG-WILTSHIRE] Immigration Push to U.S.A.?? To: eng-wiltshire@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 3:37 PM Hi Tina, I don't know why but I suspect the old reliable "free Land" was the reason for  the leaving of England. It is hard to figure what else they were up to, were they younger sons going to Virginia to make their way. Or religious refugees? In the 1840's when most of my ancestors left Wiltshire it was farm problems, high cost of corn and probably just plain too many people for the jobs and resources. My other ancestors came during the Great Migration that ended with the English Civil War. I have a bunch of Scots who were transported to Virginia in 1716, and we all know what they were up to <G> Eliz On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 6:12 PM, TINA PEDDIE <desabla1@yahoo.com> wrote: > HELLO ALL:  (I posted a few mos. ago about my Wiltshire ancestors, "KEYNES/CAINES/KEENE" who were in Wiltshire apparently prior to 1770 (my branch, which has been "Keen/e" since the 1770s, when we first find them documented in NC, U.S.A.), and "Keynes" (left Wiltshire in 1850 and went to Australia, and "Caines" left in 1850 and went to Newfoundland). KEROS & KISH KEYNES, brothers, were the ancestors of the Keynes & Caines branches. Mine is the KEENE line, and we all descend (proven thru Ydna test results) from a common male ancestor prior to 1770s).   ANYWAY.... I am wondering if anyone knows if/when there might have been a big immigrantion "push" out of Wiltshire to the U.S. - that perhaps my branch would have left in, and ended up in the U.S. sometime around or prior to the 1770s time frame. My GEORGE KEENE is said to have been born in about 1771 in possibly "NC" but no documention on that...so he or his father or grandfather could have been the >  one/s who came from Wiltshire.    And does anyone know where in the U.S. they may have first immigrated INTO after leaving Wiltshire?    Thanks for any info or suggestions....      TINA KEENE PEDDIE/California***************************************************** > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-WILTSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-WILTSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message