I would be..

    Life in Scotland

If my great ancestors from the seventeen hundreds had not decided to immigrate to Canada from Scotland, my life would be very different to my life in Canada. I will be focusing on my father's side of the family (The Hughson’s side). I will also explain how my life would be different if they had not decided to immigrate to Canada and stayed in Scotland.

In the late 1700’s my ancestors lived in a small village called Drimindarach Scotland. They chose to leave Scotland in 1790 and come to Canada. The ship that they took was named “The Lucy” and it traveled from Drimindarach Scotland to P.E.I Canada. They were farmers in Scotland and during this time period Scotland's economy was very unstable. Famine was relatively common. It was very hard for farmers to make a profit because the economy prices skyrocketed faster than they ever had in history. When they arrived in Canada they traveled inland towards Montreal and stayed in Montreal for a few years. There were so many people in Montrealthere were few job opportunities. A man by the name of Nathaniel Hughson decided to travel farther inland looking for employment. He ended up in Hamilton Ontario. He was very successful, He was a farm owner and also a hotel owner. He was so successful that hamilton named a street after him called “Hughson St”. It is still there in downtown Hamilton. One son of Nathaniel's named  Abraham Hughson moved a little farther north and started selling land to farmers. This land is now called Orangeville Ontario. Abraham was the man who sold the land to Orange Lawrence, and he turned Orangeville into a village by building a mill. My family has remained in Orangeville since then. We have a deep history in Orangeville because we have been here for almost 200 years.

Other than the fact that if my Ancestors had not immigrated to Canada I would not have been born because my parents never would have met. My life would be very much the same as it is in Canada. In scotland students go to primary school from age 4-5 to age 11-12. In scotland primary school is only 7 years then you go off to to secondary school for four years. There is a optional 2 more years that you can go to secondary school for but you are not required to complete those two years. There are only 15 universities and 3 institutions in Scotland because there is not that many universities they are much harder to get into. Therefor my education level in Scotland would be much higher than in Canada if I was able to get into a university. The economy in Scotland is very strong the average salary is 27 710 euros which is about 1000 dollars higher than the rest of the United Kingdom. This is equivalent to Canada right now but the economy is growing much faster than Canada’s therefor long term I would have a better chance of becoming more wealthy in Scotland than in Canada. Health care in Scotland is similar to Canada’s healthcare system. If you are a permanent resident of Scotland health care is provided free to you. If I were to live in Scotland I would still be healthy and if anything were to happen to me I would not have to pay for it.

In conclusion I feel that my life would be very similar if my family stayed in Scotland because, of the many similarities between the two countries like their economies and health care.

This is a image from the family cemetery in Amaranth Ontario. The oldest grave dates back to 1837.

Works Cited

"Health Care." Scotland, 1 Jan. 2014, www.aboutscotland.in/living-in-scotland/moving-to-scotland/healthcare.

"Hughson's surname." House of Names, www.houseofnames.com/hughson-family-crest.

"Hughson street." Wikipedia, 2007, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughson_Street_(Hamilton,_Ontario).

Kilgore, Gail, Mr. "Gunnison County." roots web, 1 Jan. 1999, istg.rootsweb.com/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2009.

"Scottish education system." The school run, 1 Jan. 2017, www.theschoolrun.com/overview-scottish-education-system.