The background music for this
page was sequenced by Barry Taylor, the words of An Immigrants Daughter
in the table below are also written by Barry, read his own explination
below.
Researching my family history for the past thirty
years has been both a rewarding hobby and a passion. Occasionally I uncover
ancestral stories that really tug at my emotions. Such is the story of
my Irish roots. In 1842 my gr gr gr grandfather Samuel Huston, his wife
Elizabeth and his four children left County Tyrone Ireland to emigrate
to Canada. Their only daughter, also named Elizabeth and whom I believe
to have been in her early teens, died during that voyage. I have often
thought of how dreadful that journey must have been for them, and it prompted
me to write a poem in memory of that young girl to include with my family
history notes. More recently, in the course of searching for new traditional
tunes for my tunebook and web site, I found a melody that matched both
the mood and meter of that poem. The tune is a derivative of an old English
song The Grenadier and the Lady; the lyrics are new; the story is timeless.
Barry Taylor, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 1998 |
