John Guinnis Laird

At the height of the Irish famine, John, his siblings and parents leave Ireland to join his married sister, Jane, in Middlesex County. He describes the logistics of their six-week journey from the port at Liverpool to London, Ontario. Life on board the Durham is fraught with difficulties: seasickness, stormy weather, berths collapsing, meagre rations, and disease. They stop at Grosse Isle, the quarantine station, and then make their way weary way to Hamilton where disease strikes their family. The final entry is particularly moving.