One oof our family - Allan Caldwel and his wife Janet Hunter emigrated to Sydney Mines Nova Scotia in 1853 from Galston Ayrshire to work the coalmines.
I have recnetly found a good number of Scots coalminers in various but fairly vague family relationship that emigrated in the next generation. The ones that I know of left principally from Riccartona and Galston in Ayrshire but I think this was a large scale emigration of miners as the coalmining conditions in Scotland collapsed. The period of migration seems to have been stongest from 1870 to 1900 but continued into the next century.
I suppose that they wen to many places but in my little line of research Galesburg Illinois seems to pop up bit and then they seem to move on to the Oskaloosa-Albia-Centerville-Mystic area of Iowa.
Besides Caldwell the names that crop up are Smith amd Martin.
I know that Patons, Hamiltons and Woodburns went from Galston to Michigan and in particular the area of Almont north of Detroit.
Nothing much to assist at this stage but if anyone is reasearching names that might connect in back to Galston and Riccarton we might be on a winner.
Tom C