Most of the assisted emigrants from the Shirley Estate (generally Magheracloone and Magheross civil parishes) were sent to Australia. However, last September I read many of the ghastly petitions to the Shirley Estate agent of the famine time in the Shirley Estate Papers, at PRONI in Belfast, which begged to be sent to a relative in the US/Canada, which they probably were since the passage to the US was cheaper (£3-5) than that to Australia (£15-20) As so many were sent to Australia, one must wonder if the government didn't encourage that in some way, possibly as a rebate to the estate, to not only get these folks well away from Ireland but to help populate this new British possession. Incidentally, families/persons that were selected to go by the Shirley Estate state agent (he picked them) but refused to leave or changed their minds about going were evicted from their home and land; that notation is written on the documents at PRONI. Sally M