Between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, thousands of Manx people left the island — for Ohio, for Cleveland, for Virginia, for Australia, for everywhere.

The ships that carried them have names: the Chile, the Curler, the Ocean, the Fanny, the Jane, the Ann. The places they built have names: Steubenville, Cadiz, Monroeville.

Did anyone in your family leave? Talk to the oldest people you know. Check the records (ManxBMD, the Manx Museum archives, the website’s Emigration section). If you find a connection, map the journey — from which parish to which ship to which destination.

If you don’t find a family connection, adopt one of the documented emigrants and trace their story instead.