Week 28 (I'm catching up) focuses on travel. How much easier it is today for us to travel the globe, with airplanes and cruise ships, modern cars, trains and buses. Journeys that took our ancestors days, weeks or even months, we can now accomplish in hours, and in a degree of comfort they would not have even dreamed of.
For many of my ancestors, travel for pleasure was simply not an option. They didn't have the means or the leisure to travel far, and for many holidays were unheard of. Most of them lived their entire lives within miles of their place of birth, and rarely ventured far from home.
For those of my ancestors who emigrated from England, Ireland and Germany, the move meant weeks or months of travel with the knowledge that there was little chance they would see the loved ones they left behind again. 200 years ago even exchanging letters with those in the old country could take weeks, and for those without great skill in reading and writing even letters could be problematic. For some the move would have been very final indeed.
I have family scattered around Australia, and traveling to visit them is so easy today. My sister lives 200km away - and I can hop on a train or bus, or drive my car on (fairly) good roads, and be at her house in just a few hours. 200 years ago it would be a journey of several days at least, and so visits would have been few and contact a great deal less regular. We take travel fo much for granted.
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