18th century

The late eighteenth century is the point in the family history when an ancestor of Samson Woodford left for the United States after the family lost its wealth. The migration opened a path to business success, but it also began a separation from his parents that he would later regard as the greatest regret of his life.

Reference in the Family History

Samson places the move after a sequence of financial reversals: unwise investments left the family penniless, and its possessions were sold. Their only son then came to the United States in the late eighteenth century to make a name for himself. The passage gives no exact year; the century serves as a broad marker for the family’s departure and the beginning of its American history.

Success and Separation

The ancestor eventually succeeded in business, but that achievement did not undo the cost of leaving. He never saw his parents again and regretted losing the ordinary intimacies of family life: embracing his mother and talking with his father about matters important to a young man. The date therefore anchors a history of both advancement and loss, making migration a turning point whose consequences persisted beyond the ancestor’s eventual success.