Patagonia

[jimjaqu]

I am looking into the death of a great uncle who originated from Durness but it seems died at the age of 25 in 1904 in Durness as a result of a horse riding accident shepherding in Patagonia. Was there a trend for farmers in the 1890s to go to work in south america? Was there money to be made?

It was common enough to see people emigrating to Australia,Canada and north America but I was not previously aware of Patagonia. (its roughly on the same latitude as the Falkland islands, maybe there is a connection there)

[oursutherlands]

You been a long time waiting ...

Yes, there were a lot of immigrants to Patagonia in late 1800's early 1900's from these shores. Many Scots and inparticular Welsh headed out to S.America (Hence how Football got there, and in the case of Argentina, rugby from the Welsh.)

The Irish too, tried their luck, but seem to have favoured Chile for some reason.

Why? ... Well, basically, there wasn't enough room here so the adventurous headed south to create what is now known as the ranch farmer (ranchero) out there. Empty lands in the United States had dried up by now, so South America seemed to be the next option, but it didn't take off the same way as it did further North.  You would be suprised by the impact that these settlers had in their time there. Argentinian beef for example, was imported from the uK originally. Their farming and rearing practises are based on Welsh beef husbandry.

Finally, Deigo McMaradona is actually from the Gorbals!

[jimjaqu]

Thanks for the info on south America, its amazing that people had the adventure within them to travel so far such along time ago looking for prosperity.