Singing Lily

Agnes Baxter and Edward Farrington both left England in 1923, but they weren't together. The story of their emigration is complicated and involves many of their relatives, so this post will cover how and when they all got here. First Stop: Pittsburgh The first members of these families to leave for the United States were Edward's older sister Mary Farrington and her husband Alfred (Fred) Downs. Mary and Fred were married in Leigh in 1901, and Fred was a coal miner like his father. Fred arrived August 31, 1904, and Mary followed two months later with their young son Thomas. They initially settled in Broughton , just south of Pittsburgh, so it's possible that Fred was working at the nearby coal mine in Horning . The Downs and their five children stuck around Pennsylvania, eventually settling in McKees Rocks. Fred and Mary both died in the mid 1950s. Next up was William Farrington, Mary and Edward's oldest brother. William left Liverpool on October 23, 1907 on the S.S. Hav

The Farringtons and Gallaghers emigrated from Leigh to the United States in the 1910's and 20's. What sort of life were they leaving? To help answer that question we can turn to the 1921 Census of England and Wales . The Census The United Kingdom has been conducting a census every ten years since 1801, always in the first year of the decade. England and Wales have a joint census, and Scotland and Ireland generally organize separate censuses in the same years. The 1921 Census was supposed to be taken on April 24, but a threatened strike of miners and railway workers delayed it until June 19, 1921. The United Kingdom keeps census results confidential for 100 years; the equivalent period in the United States is 72 years. So the 1921 Census was only recently released. This will be the last UK census to be released any time soon, since the 1931 census was destroyed in a fire, and there was no census in 1941 due to the war. There was, however, a census-like survey taken on the eve of