It's wonderful that the opportunity presented itself for you to be able to go back to the land of our ancestors. I think you now have a new understanding and appreciation for where and how our forefathers lived. Thanks to you and your wonderful story telling I, too, have an appreciation that I didn't have before. Enjoy the remainder of your trip and have a safe journey home.

Dear Family:

Well today will be a bit different - I arrived in Liverpool yesterday and spent the morning in the maritime museum - they have a permanent exhibit on the emmigrants who left from Liverpool for other countries - the USA, Australia, Canada, Argentina (lots of Welsh went there!) There is a photo of Lime Street Station the main rail station in Liverpool - Our family would have come through here on their way to the docks. I had to take another train to get to the docks and a taxi from that James Street Station. (Ooops - I am unable to uplaod photos for two hours right now - I'll get them on tomorrow). At any rate, I went to the museum this morning. Liverpool was sunny but cold. I was walking on the origial cobblestones - it is difficult to walk on them - they are quite large and irregularly placed so my foot would slip and I had to walk irregularly also. I think how hard it must have been for Sarah with all the children. I imagine Papa 11 or 12 holding onto Edwin's hand and Sarah 14 or so holding onto Agnes while Mother Sarah tried to keep up with everybody, manage luggage and think about everything that had to be done to get on the ship. I imagine the boys wearing caps (much as I was yesterday and today) - There would have been so many people - There would be up to 1,000 people in steerage on the Inman Lines like the City of Brooklyn.
At the museum, I walked through an exhibit that was like walking down the street in Liverpool in 1854 and getting on a steamer. The exhibit was nice but not a lot there, but the walk through the interactive exhibit was great- there was a docent dressed like a sailor talking to a group of school children - about how the ship would rock and people would be sick. Then I went to the archives and found some more information. The Parthia was a ship of the Cunard Line which was an older shipping line - probably cheaper - Richard father and son went on the Parthia - while Sarah and the rest of the children came on the City of Brooklyn the next year. Here is some information that I found:


This is from a book called The Cunard Story by Howard Johnson:

Description of a Cunard vessel in 1881 –(NOTE: This is 10 years AFTER Richard father and son came over on a Cunard vessel.)

We took more immigrants on board at Queenstown and I went into the steerage to see their accommodation, The cabins are good with two tiers of beds each side and passage down the middle each shelf of beds holding 5 or 6 persons – women on one side and men on the other – married people and their families having separate cabins – many of them are very dirty and all seem very poor.

This is a description of a voyage in 1872 on the Cunard Russia – “As a native of Liverppool I had long looked forward to crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and for me there was only one line of steamers to seek passage for myself and stepson. This was arranged for the sailing of the Cunard liner, Russia, on the first Saturday of August 1872. We secured a two berth (NOTE: This is not the way the Richards traveled - they were in steerage as described above) cabin under the long saloon. She was a beautiful yacht like craft, of 5, 380 tons displacement, barque-rigged and with a graceful cutwater bowsprit. We soon settled down, and after receiving the mails, as we went slowly down river off Seacombe, we went ahead in beautiful sunny weather. We put into Queenstown Harbour next day, and took in more mails, passengers, and fresh provisions. There were several important persons on board, some M.Ps and a a high official of Trinity House. The captain was a great disciplinarian – we ran about 320 nautical miles daily. We landed in the Company’s dock at New York on the tenth morning. We encountered a heavy N.W. gale with tremendous billows. The Russia took it all with ease, and towered up one wave and down the bottom of another in the most elegant manner, shipping no water. On the crest of a wave one could only see two more beyond it, and each one appeared to be as long as the ship. It was a grand spectacle, the sun shing brightly.

From another book about the Cunard lines:

Small cabins, lack of public rooms, and illumination by candle-light were no match for the attractive features provided for emigrants by the Inman line in the shape of saloons, iced water, set meals and information printed in 3 languages. It took Cunard a long time to accept such frills – frills which by the 1870s were bringing to cabin class passengers conditions normally experienced in the best hotels of the time. (NOTE: Sarah and the children were on the Inman Lines although they were in steerage and certainly didn't have iced water, set meals and information printed in 3 languages! That was for the upper class passengers.) I know both ships had both sails and steam engines but captains would use sails as much as possible.

So it sounds like Granddad and Uncle Dick came on the Cunard vessel which was a less frills older vessel, the Inman line was new and designed specifically for immigrants – probably more luxurious – unfortunately over the next 10 years or so it also was much more dangerous with 8 sinkings – some of these were at the same time (1870 City of Boston) The Inman line was started by a 24 year William Inman in Liverpool– he later sold out to an American company. At the time Sarah and the children came over, the Inman line had a reputation for speed and comfort with the emigrants.

The City of Glasgow carried 400 steerage passengers but others carried up to 1000 in steerage. I suspect that Sarah and the children were on a ship that carried more.

I also read that immigrants who had skills as Richard did (carpenter and wheelwright) usually found work - I read quite a bit about how hard life was at that time in England - there had been a great deal of poverty as the population growth was more than the small island nation could afford. So even skilled men such as Richard and his brothers had problems finding enough to take care of their families. Another thing that occurred to me today - I've spent several days going to the small hamlets where the Brunts, Archers, Rowberries etc lived - and even today they are incredibly peaceful and beautiful. Then going to Lionminster yesterday - a bustling market town in Sarah and Richard's time - I thought about them coming from the peaceful areas, moving to Leonminster, then to Cleveland and then to the 1,000 acre colony in Central Texas - I know Daddy talked about how Papa talked about how beautiful it was to walk from Waco to Bosque County - about when the sun hit on the flowers on the hills, it was just about the most beautiful thing in the world - they came from peaceful countryside of England went through towns there and in the USA and back to the peaceful countryside of Texas - And as I think of their descendents - most of us live in peaceful countrysides or small towns. Interesting cycles of life. And these foks who have existed for me as faces in old photographs have assumed a poignant reality for me.

OK dear family - I need to go to bed - Stacy and I have our presentation at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Keep us in your prayers at 4:30 (or 3:30 New Mexican time) tomorrow morning. Sleep with the angels...carolmae

Day Three - From Leonminster to Liverpool

Dear Family:

Well another day - another generation. Wait till you hear about this! As usual, I thought we were going to Leonminster (where Papa and Edwin, Maria etc were born, but Polly had more up her proverbial ancestor sleeve. Yesterday was spent roaming back through generations of ARchers; today was spent exloring generations of Brunts (Sarah or Grandmother Archer), along with actually going to Leonminster and riding the train from Leonminster to Liverpool -- just as Granddad Archer and Richard did to be followed by Grandmother (Sarah) and the other children the next year. By the way, it seems that this time I have the pictures right side up but I can't seem to make them fit into the proper paragraph - so please try to understand which pictures go with which explanations - I will try to explain as much as I can.

But before I start, I want to show you some photos of Polly's marvelous home where I've been living for the past three days. Here we see the kitchen with hops hanging from the ceiling, the view through the front door of Polly's home, the house from the outside
and finally, the famous Polly herself - surrounded by the veritable library of information she has accumulated over the years.


We started out - passing through countryside views that seem to come from postcards - here are two photos - I wish I could let each of you see through my eyes the beauty of the countryside. Furthermore, it continues for mile after mile - punctuated only by villages or hamlets with picturesque red brick or black and white houses or pubs - farms - barns - sheep, cows, horses.
Here are two photos that don't come close to showing this beauty- I think of what Papa, Edwin and Maria must have remembered of this green country as they lived in Texas!



We drove almost to the Welsh border (in fact going into Wales at one point) remember Sarah's father came from Wales and she and Richard were married very close - here the land has more hills - Herefordshire is like a saucer with Hereford in the flat bottom and hills all around - In Leonminster, I noticed that many of the signs were in both English and Welsh - at any rate, we came into a small hamlet, Lingen, a wooden gate with overhang stood open, but we drove to the end and walked into the church - through the cemetery - the sun was shining and as we walked in, the bells began to toll. We walked into a sun-filled church - and I felt a joyeousness in there - this was the church where Sarah and Richard were married. The photo with the sun shining through and the white walls and redish colored floor is this church as is the photo of the small window with white walls - you can see the wooden and white ceiling also. This was a beautiful visit.

We left and drove down a small lane to the house that Richard and Sarah were probably living in with her family. (Julie: Note this!)
This is the house in the photo of a white house with brown wood - two storied, sitting on a quiet country street.
We then drove to another church where Sarah's parents were married and finally to a church where Sarah was baptized. The photo with the red flowers and the white candle on top of the baptismal font is the one used to baptize our great great grandmother Sarah Brunt(Archer). We then went on to Leonminster - where our grandparents were born. They lived in Leonminster on Corn Square - which is a square (now filled with parking places) surrounded with old buildings - the Archer brothers, Richard & Sarah nee Brunt, William & Elizabeth nee Evans, George & Eliza nee Holley and their sister Mary Archer who was married to Thomas Ricketts all lived around this square in houses numbered 13, 14 & 16 or down the narrow street off the square named School Lane. This is the house where Papa said they would go outside and play during twilight during the summer - I peeked into the garden behind one of the houses - surrounded by a tall red brick fence. We then went to the Priory church (or Hereford Cathedral) where our grandparents were baptized - the photo of the large church with the black car beside it is this church. I was stunned - it is huge - a cathedral - with 3 naves. It once had a Benedictine monastary attached to it, and the monks would come in with their candles, singing the services eight times a day. I have been going to all these small churches over the last two days and this was amazing; it was so different. I imagined Sarah and Richard taking each of their children to the large baptismal font (the photo of the one with the bright green plants on it) That is the victorian font which is no longer used. This is very different. Finally, we went to the train station where I took the train from Leonminster to Liverpool.
The photo of the small red brick building is the train station - the same one that they would have gone through. As the train sped on, I noticed that most of the trip was through beautiful country side - I wondered about Richard and Sarah taking their children on that train - today we passed through a rainbow and it seemed symbolic of the hope they must have had for the future of their families. What amazing people - the hills close to Wales gradually became industraial as we came close to Liverpool- Liverpool train station (Lime Street Station) is huge - I can imagine Sarah with the children. I hope she found as much kindness and help from strangers as I did today - from the young and old men helping me carry my heavy suitcase up or down stairs to the taxi driver who refused my tip because the trip was too short!
And so I leave you tonight with this photo of me on the train - the same trip 138 years later - I met my colleague Stacy from Auburn University -She brought a brochure for the Institute for Cultural Insight which will feature culture bump training. We will go through our presentation tomorrow to prepare for Thursday morning. It seems we all have our journeys in life - to fulflill God's dreams for us - so simple, eh?. Sleep with the angels dear family. Until tomorrow Carolmae

Day Two- I Met my Great Great Grandmother Margaret and Great Great Grandfather Richard Today

Dear Family:

Wow what a day – First, Julie I must tell you thank you, thank you for introducing me to Polly Rubery – She is amazing on so many levels. Staying in her home is a real treat, and she has an astonishing amount of information about tracing one’s ancestry. And she is great fun to be with – What more could I ask?

Today, after sleeping for 14 hours, I woke up completely recovered from the trip and with only vestiges of culture shock remaining – (The stages of cultural adjustment are: Honey moon, culture shock, initial adjustment, mental isolation and acceptance & integration; furthermore, on a short trip such as this, I will go through all of them very quickly – the stages adjust themselves to the length of stay) I know I’m moving into initial adjustment because I can actually “see” things that I couldn’t “see” before e.g. a print hanging on the bathroom wall, a bathroom mat (unfortunately I didn’t “see” that until AFTER my shower; I used the wrong bathroom mat!) I had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, fried bread, toast, cereals, broiled tomatoes and great bacon – all served in Polly’s dining room looking onto that English green. Then we were off.

I am including a photo of what I see sitting in Polly’s car – this is the type of road that we were on much of the day

and this is a village we drove through.

All of these culture bumps that I am encountering make me so conscious of what Granddad and Grandmother Archer went through – much more intensely when they left this area and moved to Texas! Imagine if I have problems finding the bathroom (which I did tonight) or going from one train station to another (as I did yesterday) or understanding small things – like how to put a tip on the lunch tab (which I messed up today) or make adjustment to what "cream” is like on an apple crumble (it is yellowish in color here and wonderfully thick). Or the difference in age (Polly will comment that is a new church – only 1850 something (that is half of our history!) The houses – even the new ones – like this red brick –
are built along the lines of ancient ones – By the way, Polly explained that the black and white houses (like in the village photo) were easier to make, requiring only mud and wood while the red brick are built from bricks made in this area. These are small culture bumps but are enough to keep me off balance just a bit. Multiply my experience by 10,000 and it might be similar to what they experienced going from this small, green extremely polite and gentle people to Texas in the 1870s! Polly had gone back and prepared a family tree to when a Rubery (Margaret) married an Archer (Richard) (around 1820) They had Mary, William, George and Richard (born 1827 who was-our great grandfather who married Sarah Brunt). So today was actually spent retracing our great great grandparents – We went first to the Church of St. Anna at Thornbury that dates from the 12th century; this is where Margaret’s parents and older siblings were baptized.

However, she was born in 1800 in Greete –

These photos of windows are two windows in Margaret’s church

along with the baptismal font where she would have been baptized. I cannot tell you what it was like to touch that stone – to walk through the ancient graveyard. Of course, I also locked myself in the church and had a moment of panic hoping against hope that Polly would notice that I wasn’t in the car with her! (I continue to try to get in the car in her lap!)

From there we went to Bromfield in Shropshire County (as Papa said these would be like states in the USA) to the Church of St. Mary's


where the Archers (my great great grandfather Richard married Margaret and son of Richard Archer (Born 1758 and married to Sarah Davies who was the son of William Archer who died in 1799 in Bromfield, Shropshire. Bromfield's church is dedicated to St Mary and stands on a wooded promontory between the Onny and Teme. Part of it once formed the chapel of a Benedictine priory established in 1135 and dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540. All that remains of the priory, other than the church itself, is a stone and timber gatehouse built in the 14th century. After the Dissolution, part of St Mary's was made into a house, occupied by a Charles Foxe, and it was only in 1658 that the church was fully restored to its proper function. If you walk around the outside of it you can still see the ruined remains of Foxe's house, close to an avenue of 40 yew trees running down towards the river from the eastern side of the church.
The arched door is a view of walking out of that church - that is the view that the Archers would have had in the 1700 and 1800s as they left church. The church was decorated for its autumn festival - you can see apples etc. on the baptismal font - this is where our great great grandfather Richard would have been baptized.
This church was a very powerful experience for me – something really called to me. Perhaps it is a dawning awareness of these people becoming real-they were carpenters and wheelwrights (Polly explained that a “wright” ending on a surname means “maker of”- they were people who lived in Shropshire and Herefordshire – agricultural areas (which they still are; we passed through farms and pastures all day!) and I can imagine them picking up and moving from one village to another to find work and to take care of their families. As Polly and I sat in this pub (The Tally Ho) and had lunch (steak and kidney pie (which is a pudding which is meat and gravy in a pastry!) it was very good!, she talked abaout how Herefordshire and Shropshire are poor areas and were particularly hard-hit in the 1870s during the agricultural depression. Even though the Archers weren’t farmers, their work depended on the agricultural market being strong. Furthermore, these counties are “marcher” counties meaning they are next to Wales and were subject to raids from Wales historically – In short, this was a hard area for living. As these awarenesses began to occur to me, these names and dates are beginning to assume flesh and blood; these are men and women who had hard lives, made decisions for survival and, as a result, created who I am and who you are. We stand on their shoulders on so many levels.

Now, I ‘m sitting in Polly’s class in Hereford at Hereford Technological College for a class in family history. It is finished and so am I – as evidenced by this photo.
OK Now I can get photos onto the blog; tomorrow I will endeavor to get them on and get them on right side up!!

OK dear family – sleep with the angels – I’ll be back in touch tomorrow..

carolmae

Day One Sunday Oct. 17

I am in Herefordshire, where our family comes from - it is stunningly beautiful, peaceful, serene - especially the closer I get to Papa's home.
The flight was long and the best thing was a little screen on the seat in front of me that showed a map of where the plane was -but what was interesting, it also showed the different ridges etc on the ocean floor so as I came this way, I imagined the ship going over those very ridges with the Archer family on board. We were flying over the western part of England just before dawn - as I looked down I could see the golden lights of the towns and villages but they were configured in random round and semi circle patterns - not laid out like our towns are from the air - all in all it left an impression of a black velvet quilt with golden floral patterns scattered on it - beautiful as we were coming into Birmingham, a red dawn was on the horizon and as the plane came lower I could make out fields, appearing through a mist and again of odd shapes and various sizes - none much larger than 20 or 25 acres and all ringed by dark green hedges or trees - giving the impression of a mystical land - as I am typing this in the bedroom of my B&B, the backyard is filled with strange shaped trees and bushes set against a tall red brick wall - I'll try to upload a photo OK I'll send photos by email; please forward them to anybody you know because I don't have all the email addresses on this laptop.

THE GREAT TRAIN MIGRATION
My plan was to take a train from Birmingham to Ledbury; The trains are amazing; I took a free train from the airport (which remined me of an old airport in Guatemal excitp its cold here) Speaking of the cold, it is a sunny beautiful day so I'm completely unprepared for this English cold - it is sneaky sidling up to me and I don't even know its there until its settled in my marrow - not like Texas blue northers that bombast you with cold - all of this I'm thinking about how Papa and the others had to learn as they immigrated -

Some things I notice here:
1. People aren't on their laptops everywhere in public like they are in the USA 2. People aren't on their cell phones everywhere like they are in the USA 3. People are incredibly polite This is an actual sign at the ticket station:

Politeness Notice
Please do not use your mobile phone whilest transfiring business at the ticket counter.

Two skinheads helped carry my suitcase up a stairwell and walked with me several blocks to make sure I knew where I was going (I actually didn't but that wasn't their fault - see number 5)

4. LOTS of people are smoking in public on the streets- reminiscent of the 1960s in the USA

5. I aparently don't speak English - or at least understand it - it is very strange I ask for directions, people tell me things that I know the words but by the time they finish speaking, I don't know what they have said. I know I am in culture shock - I walked a very very very long distance this morning from one train station to another when they were side by side - I couldn't understand how to get there had to go piecemeal - asking and getting a little clue from each person (they were giving complete instsructions I just got one clue however)

6. People are smaller here - reminds me of Papa and what I've heard about Granddad and Grandmother Archer - that they were small people - well most folks here are small and they all remind me of photos but these people are alive - ite is strange to see my type of people everywhere.

7. Riding the train, looking at houses as we pass – everything is is red bricks – even new houses are all red brick – although some have a creamy stucco over them with dark red tiled roofs and chimneys with little double stacks on top - – This gives a sesnse of Victorianism everywhere – black wrought iron fences and cobblesone streets – not for show as some places in the states – these are the real deal – lots of steel construction –it is autumn here – just a touch of gold to the trees

It is now 7:00 here so I'm going to bed - I only had 3 to 4 airplane hours of sleep last night - my body thought it was 1:00 in the morning when we arrived (as it was in Houston) so it is saying GO TO BED

OK dear family - more tomorrow...Julie I love your post - Sleep with the angels

Mike eating tacos




Ike begs me not to go


Dear Hearts:

Well I'm on my way - Mike came by with tacos for breakfast - the cats are hiding - they've figured out that there is going to be a change and they don't like it!! I feel like this is a dream - This time tomorrow I'll be in Papa's hometown. Wow

I get there at 7:00 their time - 1:00AM Texas time.

OK Family - here we go

love carolmae
p.s. I'm trying to up load photos - we may have to wait till I get back - maybe by email- we'll see...carolmae

Richard and Sarah Archer Family: Richard and Sarah Archer Family

Richard and Sarah Archer Family: Richard and Sarah Archer Family: It's fascinating that you can actually go back and follow their footsteps. When you think that what they experienced in 1872/3 is so different from the very experience you will have trying to retrace their steps. Imagine the week they spent coming over and you, in just a matter of hours, will be on the very homeland they left behind. You will be able to look down at the broad expanse that they could only stare across for days on end and wonder what was beyond.

How strange to them would the thought have been that one day a descendant of theirs could step onto a vessel that would fly. When the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk and the air industry later took flight did they wonder what that trip would have been had their been a plane to board?

Why, is the question on my mind. Why did they decide to leave all they knew and come here. Was there a promise of a change in life that excited them? Was it a restlessness? We may never know.

I'm sure as you follow their voyage trail that you may wonder too. I can't imagine what would make me leave my homeland. Even leaving my hometown, knowing I may never see it again, is unimaginable. I'm looking forward though, to see it through another's eyes since I won't be there.