-
Hi, my name is Nollaig Gormlaith, I am Irish, my dad died and now I want to move to America to get free land and a new life. When my dad died I couln't afford to pay the bills on the house we were living in. The government was going to take my house away from me and I needed to make more money and continue living there, or I could move somewhere else. I decided to move to America so that I could leave my dad in peace and I could start a new life. Right now I am on a ferry coming to America.
-
I got off the ferry to find myself in America for the first time in my life. I am so excited to be here and to know that I am living here for the rest of my life. I arrived at Ellis Island which is in New York and I have to go through the immigration process so I can live here and so that I can move on with my journey. When it was my turn to go through the process, I started to stress out and to get nervous because the people were going very fast and they were very strict and harsh.
-
I wanted to move to America so that I could live a better life but that means that I had to find a place to live. I went searching for a very long time because a lot of the houses were already filled with immigrants. A problem I had was knowing what people were saying because they were speaking English. I finally found a place that I could live in but I could only afford to stay in a place that I would share with five other Irish immigrants. I only had the money that I had brought with me.
-
I was living in a room with five other people and I had only brought the money that I had from Ireland, so I needed to find a job so that I could keep paying bills and rent. Also, I wanted to get a job so that I could have money in the future if something ever comes up. I went looking for a job for quite a long time and finally I found a job at a textile company where I would be making shirts.
-
The Homestead Act was passed in 1862 and it said that anyone could get free land in the west as long as they lived there for five years. I thought that it would be a great move so I could get free land for myself. I wanted to save as much money as possible for the future. I also thought that moving west would be another great way to continue my life in America.
-
After moving west to find free land, there was a problem, I had to start making money again. My old job was too far away to keep working there after moving. I was in the group with miners, ranchers, and cowhands when I moved to the west. I started working as more a farmer instead of a rancher because the group still needed a couple. The job was a pretty good pay and it worked with having free land.
