Hi,
I have just discovered alianna68 posted here and have sent off an email. We have the same grt grandparents - James Halstead and Margaret Ann Ion.
alianna68 is impressed that the couple immigrated twice.
I have given their move a bit of thought over the years and assume that James left England for a chance at a better life. The family farm was too small to support all the Halsteads and James had no interest in working in the mills. He may have fancied himself as a bit of a gentlemen farmer . So James and new wife Margaret set off for Canada where they remained for a number of years.
Dairy farming in Canada has many challenges including the extreme cold. Cows don't stay outside at night like they do in Australia or do they now?
There's a family legend that goes like this: one evening in Canada, James is reading a magazine describing farming conditons in Australia and he reads about the temperate weather conditions and then announces that the family will move to australia. he has moved once, out of England, and in about 16 years moved another two times before moving to Australia. Moving across Canada from the east to the west over such a short period may have helped make James think a move to Australia would be easy peasy., a piece of cake, nothing to it.
I was reliably informed that James had no idea what to expect when he got to Australia so he included in his luggage the family cooking stove. I wonder whether he took it from England?
Hope this helps.