WHY MERRILLS LEFT ENGLAND Steve/Michel
Hi Steve and Michele:I've been studying the same thing along with my genealogy "stuff."However...I have found that reasons for leaving an area can be just about as different as individuals can be!!For example:My Corbett and Grisham ancestors "got into trouble, got arrested on purpose, and were sent to America on a prison ship."Well, anyway that is the family history...but it seems to be fairly accurate.
Then another reason was for business...either connected with sailing vessels, etc.AND then another was for the pure adventure of it all.Then, as you all discussed, religion seems to have been the primary reason for leaving England.Not everyone had an easier time here in America...I'm a direct descendant of Anne Marbury Hutchinson...and she got into A LOT of trouble in Mass.
Then, again, my most recent German relatives left for political and financial reasons...in the early 1800s.Times were very bad in Germany in many ways, and some of the young men that lived out in the countryside felt adventurous and left for America.
Let me know if I touched someone with my observations!
Thanks, Barbara