In message <LYR5935-29306-1998.12.19-00.01.30--michael#MTOBIAS.DEMON.CO.
writes :

I don't know if that route is known as the 'herring route',
but there are 2 stories about families ending up in Glasgow.
My husbands family came >from Zhitomir and when they saw English
writing, they thought they were in America and got off the boat.
Another story I have heard is that a friends family paid to go to
America, but were kicked off early in Glasgow.
Madeleine Black
Glasgow, Scotland

Sorry to disagree with a fellow Scot, but no families "were kicked off
early in Glasgow" (Leith maybe but not Glasgow).

In the early years of the mass emigration >from Central/Eastern Europe
many (if not most) of the boats took what were called 'Indirect' routes
to their final destinations. These journeys were probably less
expensive than the 'Direct' alternatives.

Certainly >from Hamburg (which was the main port of emigration) many
boats headed for the USA and Canada with stop-overs in England,
Scotland, Holland etc. In the case of the UK, these stops were on the
East Coast (Grimsby, Hull, Leith) with the passengers usually travelling
overland by train to the West Coast ports (Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow)
to continue their journeys.

There are many tales of our ancestors arriving at the East Coast ports,
thinking they had arrived in America, or being 'conned' into thinking
so, or being asked for more money to continue their journeys etc etc but
in many cases it appears that the families had indeed only paid for
travel to the UK. They then travelled west, living with friends and/or
relations >from the 'old country', possibly working to save more money to
continue their trip to America at a later date.

Michael Tobias michael@...
mtobias@...
Researching :
TOBIASZ, DORFMAN in Ostrolenka, Lomza, Nowogrod, Kolno, Myszyniec
MAJERKIEWICZ, CYTRON, RUDOWSKI in Checiny, Malogoszcz, Rembiechowa
BANKS in Taurage, ZELDEN in Bobruisk