Ocean travel was hazardous. One of my great-great grandfathers and his family emigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1849. A cholera epidemic swept the ship while on the voyage. My ancestor was carrying a New Testament bible and recorded in it the death of his wife and several of his children. He and my great-grandfather survived and made it to Canada.
I don’t think many realize how desperate a person who was not rich had to be to emigrate. The conditions were rough and the voyage was very expensive.
Somebody posted a New York City newspaper yesterday from 1849. Cholera was breaking out all over the country. One guy in upstate NY got a letter from his brother in Rio Grande, Texas saying that 4,000 people out of a population of 20,000 had died. Healthy men went to sleep and were dead by morning.
Cholera epidemics were horrendous.