Journaling reads:
When George and Annie Winter Todd and their five oldest children left Lincolnshire for the United States it must have been bittersweet. Annie was surely elated that she would soon see her parents and 9 of her 10 living siblings. For George, I’m sure the excitement was tempered with sorrow. He probably would never see his aged parents or some of his siblings again this side of Heaven. No family records exist that say whether they took the train to Liverpool or if a brother or friend drove them there in a wagon, but I suspect they rode the train, leaving behind cherished possessions gifted to one of George’s siblings. With them were George’s brother William and another George Todd, his Uncle William’s son. The first two children shown here are wrong - the ages are right, but they should have been Jane and Florence, not James and Theresa. I can see, though, how bad writing could have been construed as these names. They most likely boarded The Queen in late February 1884 and arrived at Castle Garden, New York on 11 Mar 1884. It is unlikely they were met at the harbor, but rather took a train on to Livingston County, Illinois where George and Annie had eight more children and lived their dream of a farm of their own. They did well for themselves with the American Dream.